TTHE HE

SIMPLEST SIMPLEST

BOOK BOOK

EVER EVER

WRITTENWRITTEN

Keysa Luna

* to orange-pill: (verb) / tu’ ȯr-inj-‘pil/

: the act of explaining bitcoin in such a way that a

pre-coiner gets it, and becomes a bitcoiner!

1 bitcoin = 100,000,000 satoshis

2nd Edition

Includes a section on Nostr

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written



Second Edition, July 2024, Keysa Luna

First Edition, March 2022, Keysa Luna

Cover and interior design by Keysa Luna

Cover photo by Vallota from Pixabay.com

Title graphics by @Asanoha_gold :: sovereignremnant.com

Nostr logo by sovrynmatt@nostrplebs.com

Independently Published

Printed in the USA

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons

AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0

International License.

This means you are free to:

Share: Copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format

Adapt: Remix, transform, and build upon the material

Under the following terms:

Attribution - You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license, and

indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable

manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you

or your use.

NonCommercial - You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

ShareAlike - If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must

distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTSTABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Why We Need ...........................................1

Fixes This ................................................32

3. What Is

? .................................................36

4. How Does

Work? ..................................... 73

5. A Word On The Lightning Network .............................88

6. How To

.................................................... 92

7. On Privacy ................................................................. 104

8. Dispelling

Fud .......................................108

9. Why

Only? .............................................123

10. Satoshi’s Numbers ..................................................127

11. Resources for the

Rabbit Hole ..

...........133

12.

Community Projects ............................138

13.

Induced Ponderings ............................139

14. A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto .......................................145

White Paper ..................................14915. The

17. Why We Need Nostr .......................................... 161

16. What is Nostr? ................................................... 160

18. How Does Nostr Work? ...................................... 162

19. How To Nostr ..................................................... 165

20. Key Management ....................................................... 166

21. Nostr Resources .................................................... 167

22. Nostr Clients/Apps ................................................ 168

23. Join Us! ....................................................................... 169

cont.

for all our children

with thanks to Satoshi and the cypherpunks

I love the simple life,

I love nature, I love being barefoot,

I love profound conversation that sparks creativity,

connection and inspiration.

I love freedom.

And, I love bitcoin.

Love is a big word, bitcoin is worthy of big love.

It’s existence is a point of bright light in this most

challenged time in human existence.

I wrote this book in the hopes of making bitcoin, and the

reasons we need it, more accessible to more seekers.

This book is a starting point, into what I, and many others,

have discovered is a phenomenally endless, life-changing

and beautiful rabbit hole!

May you be orange-pilled, may you be free,

and may you be well enriched by the journey!

738922

As I submit this 2nd Edition for print,

I reflect on the process of writing, editing, updating,

fact-checking and, most importantly,

adding the new section on Nostr,

and I am in awe.

In awe of all of you, orange-pilled, purple-pilled

and yet-to-be,

all on this journey with me,

as we march forward,

resolute in our mission to continue the work

of the cypherpunks,

the freedom lovers, the visionaries,

those who looked ahead,

who understood both the power and the danger

of the digital world left unchecked,

and who sought, and still seek, to

write the code we all need,

to live into a future of freedom.

It is up to us to use it.

Let us proceed together apace.

Onward.

851522

Remember: Don’t Trust, Verify

And always DYOR: Do Your Own Research!

vii

Note: Everything presented in this little book is up

for debate, discussion, updates and corrections!

As with all things in life, there are numerous view-

points on bitcoin, nostr, their future, and every

other aspect of them both.

Lively commentary is streamed 24/7 on nostr and

twitter that bounces between confusing and

clarifying!

This entire ecosystem is an emergent, grassroots,

messy, fascinating unfolding! It is by far the largest

global experiment ever undertaken, with people of

every race, religion, class and persuasion engaging

permissionlessly together, to discover a new way

forward.

If you are inspired by such a movement, you will very

likely find yourself falling down the rabbit hole with

the rest of us!

Here’s to open minds and open hearts along the

way…

viii

I’ve developed a new open source P2P

e-cash system called Bitcoin. It’s

completely decentralized, with no central

server or trusted parties, because

everything is based on crypto proof

instead of trust. Give it a try, or take a

look at the screenshots and design paper:

Download Bitcoin v0.1 at

http://www.bitcoin.org

~ Satoshi Nakamoto 2009-02-11 22:27:00 UTC

Posted on metzdowd.com, an early

cryptography mailing list

WHY WE NEED WHY WE NEED

WE NEED WE NEED

BECAUSE MONEY IS BROKENBECAUSE MONEY IS BROKEN

The root problem with conventional

currency is all the trust that’s required

to make it work. The central bank must

be trusted not to debase the currency,

but the history of at currencies is full

of breaches of that trust. Banks must be

trusted to hold our money and transfer

it electronically, but they lend it out

in waves of credit bubbles with barely a

fraction in reserve. We have to trust them

with our privacy, trust them not to let

identity thieves drain our accounts.

~ Satoshi Nakamoto 2009-02-11

The fiat money system is broken (always has been).

It is not sustainable (never has been).

There is no way to fix it (never will be)

THE (NOT) GOLD STANDARDTHE (NOT) GOLD STANDARD

Many people still believe that money is backed by

gold.

It is not.

It has not been backed by gold since 1971, when

President Nixon unilaterally took the world off the

gold standard (the Nixon Shock).

See wtfhappenedin1971.com to get a clear picture

of the damage this did.

� Fun Fact: The World Economic Forum was formed in 1971.

Cha

rt showing Consumer Price Index inflation (red line) vs

the purchasing power of the US dollar (black line) since 1971.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://

fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIAUCSL, June 9, 2024.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Why We Need

FIAT: (noun) /ˈː.æt/

: an authoritative or arbitrary order : DECREE

: an authoritative determination : DICTATE

: a command or act of will that creates something without

or as if without further effort

~ merriam-webster.com/dictionary

FIAT : from Lati

n fieri «to be made, come into being»

Fiat is money that has value only because the gov-

ernment says (decrees) that it does.

Therefore people (have to) believe it does.

Even if they don’t believe fiat has value, by law they

are forced to use it and to accept it as payment for

goods and services.

Fiat money is printed/created out of thin air.

These days about 5% of all dollars are printed as

cash.

The other 95% is digitally created by banks entering

numbers into a computer when they issue loans.

It costs only a few cents for the Bureau of

Engraving and Printing to produce a $100 bill…

~ American Economist, Barry Eichengreen

Scott Pelley of NBC ’60 Minutes’: Fair to say you

simply ooded the system with money?

Fed Chair Jerome Powell: Yes. We did.

That’s another way to think about it. We did.

Pelley: Where does it come from?

Do you just print it?

Powell: We print it digitally. So as a central bank, we

have the ability to create money digitally. And we do that

by buying Treasury Bills or bonds for other government

guaranteed securities. And that actually increases the

money supply. We also print actual currency and we

distribute that through the Federal Reserve banks.

~ CNBC ’60 Minutes’ Interview, May 17, 2020

Two months after the onset of the C*vid-19 lockdown

There’s really no limit to what we can do

with these lending programs that we have.

~ Fed Chair Jerome Powell

March 18, 2020 on CBS News

s, there is an i

nfinite amount of cash in the Federal

Reserve. We will do whatever we need to do to make

sure there’s enough cash in the banking system.

~ Neel Kashkari , President of the Minneapolis Fed

March 23, 2020, CBS '60 Minutes'

The ‘we’ here is five people voting on changes t

monetary policy within the Federal Reserve system

during FOMC meetings. 5 out of 330,000,000.

That’s all it takes to change US monetary policy.

~ @MartyBent, F

ounder of TFTC.io

Forbes Article, March 18, 2020

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Why We Need

FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH OF OLDEFROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH OF OLDE

The bank hath benet of interest on all monies

that it creates out of nothing.

~ William Paterson, 1694

Founder of the Bank of England

All of the perplexities, confusion, and distress in America arises,

not from the defects of the Constitution or Confederation,

not from the want of honor or virtue,

so much as from downright ignorance of

the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.

~ John Adams

2nd President of the United States, 1797-1801

I believe that banking institutions are more

dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.

Already they have raised up a money aristocracy

that has set the government at defiance.

The issuing power should be taken from the banks, and

restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.

~ Thomas Jefferson

3rd President of the United States, 1801-1809

While boasting of our noble deeds were careful to conceal the ugly

fact that by an iniquitous money system we have nationalized a

system of oppression which, though more refined, is not

less cruel than the old system of chattel slavery.

~Horace Greeley

US Congressman 1848-49

Founder of The New York Tribune

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is

absolute master of all industry and commerce…

when you realize that the entire system is very easily controlled, one

way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have

to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate.

~ James A. Garfield

20th

President of the United States, Mar-Sept.1881

Assassinated in 1881

There today exists uncontrolled in the hands of a set of men

a power to make dollars from nothing.

~ Thomas W. Lawson, Author 'Frenzied Finance', 1905

I was as secretive - indeed, as furtive - as any conspirator.

Discovery, we knew, simply must not happen, or else all our time

and effort would be wasted. If it were to be exposed that our

particular group had got together and written a banking bill, that

bill would have no chance whatever of passage by Congress.

~ Frank A.Vanderlip

President of the National City Bank of New York

(forerunner of Citi Bank)

~ Writing in 1935 of the secretive meeting that took place on

Jekyll Island in 1910, to draft the bill that was passed as

the Federal Reserve Act in 1913.

This (Federal Reserve) Act establishes the most gigantic trust on

earth. When the President (Woodrow Wilson) signs the Bill, the

invisible government of the Monetary Power will be legalised…

The worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated

by this banking and currency Bill.

~ Charles A. Lindbergh, Sr.

US Congressman 1907-1917

Why We Need

I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country.

A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit.

Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation,

therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men.

We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most

completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized

world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a

government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a

government by the opinion and duress of

a small group of dominant men.

~ Woodrow Wilson

President of the United States, 1913-1921

6 years after passing the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know,

that a nancial element in the large centers

has owned the government of the U.S. since

the days of Andrew Jackson.

~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

President of the United States in a letter written

on Nov. 21, 1933 to Colonel E. Mandell House

It [the depression] was not accidental.

It was a carefully contrived occurrence….

The international bankers sought to bring about

a condition of despair here so that they might

emerge as the rulers of us all.

~ Congressman Louis T. McFadden,

Assassinated in 1936

Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee

Each and every time a bank makes a loan,

new bank credit is created - new deposits

- brand new money.

~ Graham F.Towers

Gov of the Central Bank of Canada, 1934-55

If there were no debts in our money system,

there wouldn’t be any money

~ Marriner Eccles,

1941, Gov. of the Fed

I have never yet had anyone who could, through the

use of logic and reason, justify the Federal government

borrowing the use of its own money…

I believe the t

ime will come when people will

demand that this be changed.

I believe the time will come in this country when

they will actually blame you and me and

everyone else connected with the Congress

for sitting idly by and permitting

such an idiotic system to continue.

~ Wright Patman

US Congressman 1928-1976

Chairman, Committee on Banking and Currency 1963-1975

When you or I write a check, there must be sufcient funds in our

account to cover the check, but when the Federal Reserve writes a

check there is no bank deposit on which that check is drawn. When

the Federal Reserve writes a check, it is creating money.

~ Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

'Putting It Simply', 1984

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Why We Need

THE FEDERAL RESERVETHE FEDERAL RESERVE

The Fed is the ‘independent’ central bank of the

US. It was created in 1913 with the passing of the

Federal Reserve Act.

It has a unique structure, part private and part

government.

It is supposed to be a politically independent,

non-partisan entity within the government.

While the Fed Board of Governors is appointed by the

President and confirmed by Congress, the

decisions of the Fed do not need to be ratified

by anyone.

It consists of:

� The Federal Reserve Board of Governors

� 12 Federal Reserve Banks

� The Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC),

which is the monetary policy-making body.

e Fed is responsible for:

Overseeing US monetary policy, promoting employ-

ment and stable prices.

Regulating and supervising banking and financial

institutions.

Providing payments services to financial institutions.

Promoting consumer protection and community

development.

A NOA NOTE ON THE FED CHAIRTE ON THE FED CHAIR

The Chair of the Federal Reserve is also:

� Chairs the Federal Open Market Committee

(FOMC), which decides on the direction of US

monetary policy (for eg: QE, interest rate hikes)

� A member of the International Monetary Fund,

the IMF

� A member of the Bank for International

Settlements, the BIS (the bank of central banks).

� The US finance minister of the G-7

� The US finance minister of the G-20

A whole lot of power for one person.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Why We Need

FRACTIONAL RESERVE BANKING, FRACTIONAL RESERVE BANKING,

INTEREST & LOANSINTEREST & LOANS

Fractional Reserve banking: Until March 2020, banks

were required to hold a reserve of 10%, and could

loan out 90%.

Since March 2020, there is no reserve required, allow-

ing banks to issue unlimited loans.

A loan is debt-based money, and you are required to

pay interest on the loan.

Fun Fact 1: The money to pay the interest on the

loan is NOT created by the banks.

Fun Fact 2: It is NEVER created.

Fun Fact 3: There is NOT ENOUGH money in the

world to pay back all the loans + the interest due

on those loans.

Fun Fact 4: There never will be!

A NOTE ON THE PETRO DOLLARA NOTE ON THE PETRO DOLLAR

One could say that until 1971 the dollar was backed

by gold, and since 1974 it has been backed by oil,

and thus by default, the US Military.

In 1974 the US and Saudi Arabia entered into bilat-

eral agreements to price the sale of oil in US dollars.

Since then, most global oil sales have been settled in

US dollars.

This has contributed greatly to the dollar becoming

the strongest currency in the world.

It has thus been artificially propped up, even during

times when it would normally have struggled.

Since late in 2022, a number of countries have

begun to trade in currencies other than the US

dollar.

It is very possible that this could be the beginning of

the end of the petro dollar. What happens next

remains to be seen…

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Why We Need

ON QE (QUANTITATIVE EASING)ON QE (QUANTITATIVE EASING)

Quantitative Easing is considered an ‘unconventional

monetary policy’ used by Central Banks to ‘stimulate

the economy’, whereby the Fed buys government

bonds and other government securities.

It was first used by Japan between 2001-2006.

Following that, the US, UK, and the Eurozone used

QE during the 2008 financial crisis

Since then, the only time the US has not had a QE

program was between 2014-2019.

As seen below, critics contend that QE

overwhelmingly benefits the already-wealthy.

Credit: @RudyHavenstein on Twitter

CYCLESCYCLES

In all of nature, there are cycles, natural ebbs and

flows, expansions and contractions.

This contributes to an overall, over-time, balance

and sustainability of the whole interconnected

system, of all life on earth.

The debt-based, fiat currency system ignores the

wisdom of natural cycles, and instead is based on,

and 100% reliant for its survival upon, unparalleled

and unmitigated growth, in order to continue

servicing its debts.

In nature, this is cancer.

In ‘the economy’, this unnatural trajectory is further

supported by the government bailing out failing

banks and large companies, rather than allowing them

to fold, and be recycled into something new, some-

thing healthier.

The short-sightedness of bailing out failing compa-

nies is putting the whole economy at risk. In essence,

it is just kicking the can down the road, and the inev-

itable turmoil that lies ahead is likely to be far, far

more intense than if natural cycles were allowed to

play out.

We are indebted to Satoshi Nakamoto, and to the

cypherpunks before and after him, for having the

vision, foresight, determination and skill to provide

a lifeboat to carry us to new shores.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Why We Need

Once we realize the gift that this is, it is up to us to

jump on board, with full hearts and clear minds, to

take the trip and build a new world with the Money

of Peace.

Bitcoin fixes the money, it is up to us to fix the rest.

And, to be clear, by having the money xed, a LOT

of other things will be fixed, by default

The main one being that large-scale, government-ini-

tiated, kinetic war will no longer be profitable, or pos-

sible, without the support of the people.

Additionally, there will naturally be less consumption,

along with a switch over to real-value goods and ser-

vices, free markets, real savings, & demonetization of

housing and real estate, that was never meant to

be monetized in the first place.

SEE: Bitcoin Fixes This, page 32

WE NEED WE NEED

BECAUSE INFLATION IS THEFTBECAUSE INFLATION IS THEFT

2024 FRED chart showing the declining purchasing power of the

dollar since the formation of the Federal Reserve in

1913. The cumulative rate of inflation since 1913 is around

3.067%. All central bank fiat currencies around the world

are following a similar rate of decline.

The more money that is created out of thin air,

the more all money loses value/purchasing power.

This is called inflation.

Inflation is time-theft, literally. The value of your

time is stolen when you save it in a currency that is

inflated, debased and manipulated.

Inflation is also a hidden tax.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Why We Need

This time-theft and tax has affected all other

countries’ fiat currencies as well, since they have all

been pegged to the US dollar, as it has been the

world reserve currency since the Bretton Woods

agreement in 1944.

In the USA, a 2% annual inflation rate is written into

the Federal Reserve mandate.

This means that you are GUARANTEED to be able

to buy 2% LESS with the same $20 bill each year.

In March 2024, the annual inflation rate was 3.5%,

(a lot more than 2%, which means you lost 3.5% of

your purchasing power between March 2023 and

March 2024.

Put another way, this means that on average, things

went up in price by 3.5%.

If inflation was measured accurately, like it was

done until the early 1980’s, it would actually

be closer to 10% in 2024.

When looked at by category, one sees that

inflation is a whole lot worse than 3.5% in many

categories over the past year.

When one looks at one's rent, grocery bills, gas

prices, almost anything one buys, it is quite clear that

inflation is rampant in every sector.

Average Inflation over the

past 50 years in the US:

Average Cost 1971 2024 % Increase

Salary $9,400 $59,400 532%

House $23,400 $513,000 2,092%

Gallon of Gas $0.36 $4.17 1,058%

New Car $3,400 $47,000 1,282%

College Degree $1,400 $26,000 1,757%

Basket Groceries $20 $210 950%

Electricity/kWh $0.02 $0.15 650%

True Story:

~ A house was bought in 1976 for $58,000.

~ When accounting for ‘official’ inflation, this would be

$279,000 in 2022 dollars.

~ In 2022 the same house was valued at $2.09 million.

~ Ponder on that…

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Fiat currency is disinformation.

What information does a $10 bill convey?

The 10 is a numerator of a fraction with

the denominator missing.

10 out of what?

The 10 says nothing without a known

and stable denominator.

~ @bitlany

Why We Need

As inflation increases, your savings (if you are lucky

enough to have savings), lose value.

Over time, they lose A LOT of value.

If you started saving $100/month today, with the

best available interest rate of 0.05%:

� In 30 years you would have saved $84,019.

When adjusted for the FED’s mandated 2% inflation

� In 30 years your savings would have an effective

purchasing power of just $46,384.

Adjusting for today’s inflation of 3.5%:

� Your $84,019

worth of savings would have the

purchasing power of just

$11,037

in 30 years!

In effect this means that approximately six out of

seven hours of your work have been stolen = Time

Theft.

Another way to look at it is the following:

In 1971, the cost of a house = 2.5 times an average

annual salary.

In 2024, the cost of a house = 8.6 times an

average annual salary.

In 1971, a new car cost about 1/3 of an average salary.

In 2024, a new car cost over 3/4 of an average salary.

I trust that it is now clear that

inflation

does *not*

work in your favor.

te: All of these numbers are averages, and variable based

many

factors.

The

point

remains, inflation

hidden

tax

and is time-theft on our real labor and production.

Hard money fixes this.

Bitcoin is hard money.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Why We Need

WE NEED WE NEED

TO REPLACE THE CENTRALLY TO REPLACE THE CENTRALLY

CONTROLLED, MANIPULATED, DEBT-CONTROLLED, MANIPULATED, DEBT-

BASED ECONOMYBASED ECONOMY

I don’t believe we shall ever have a good money again,

before we take the thing out of the hands of government,

that is, we can’t take them violently out of the hands of

government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way

introduce something they can’t stop.

~ Friedrich Hayek, 1984

Austrian Economist, Philosopher and Author, 1899-1992

Graph showing exponential M1 Money Supply increase from

$4 trillion in March 2020 to over $18 trillion in June 2024.

Blow your mind here: https://usdebtclock.org/

FRED Graph showing Total Public Debt 1970-2024 in the US.

Global debt, measured by the Institute of

International Finance, now totals $303 TRILLION.

This is our planet on debt-based at.

By the way, global GDP is only $84 trillion.

~ Nik Bhatia, Author of ‘Layered Money’, 2021

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

45% of all the US dollars in existence were

printed between April 2020-Jan 2022!

Printed out of thin air that is, remember?

Fiat money is centrally controlled by the state, and

the supply is easily manipulated.

It took 205 years for the US National Debt to

reach $1 trillion. (1776 > 1981)

It took just 33 more years for the US National Debt

to reach $34 trillion! (1981 > 2024)

Why We Need

For reference:

If you have: You can spend $1/second

$1 Million for 11 days = 11 days

$1 Billion for 11,680 days = 32 years

$1 Trillion for 11,680,000 days = 32,000 years!

We are all at the mercy of those who have the power

to decide when to print more, and what interest rates

to charge.

If the Fed raises the interest rates, then getting a

loan for a house or a car becomes suddenly more

expensive, which slows down spending, leading to

stagflation

If they keep the rates artificially low, we enter a

period of depression

Allowing the central bank to create the financia

‘weather’, takes away our freedom to let the mar-

ket decide what is of value, and what is not.

In addition, when they bail out banks and corpora-

tions, they artificially prop up the economy. It is only

a matter of time before the house of cards falls.

The original argument for having a central bank was

that there needed to be a Lender of Last Resort when

the economy wobbled.

This has turned into the central bank being a Ruler of

First Resort, with unparalleled, unelected, ultimately

authoritarian power.

All money is political, except for Bitcoin.

Fiat currencies, banking instruments, ntech credits,

other cryptocurrencies, and even gold are all controlled

by governments, corporations, or small groups.

Having an exception will prove very useful

as we head into the future.

~ Alex Gladstein @gladstein

Chief Strategy Ofcer for the Human Rights Foundation

Bitcoin links together 8 billion people, links together a

hundred million companies, it synchronizes the world

across political jurisdictions, and it returns rationality to

the entire nancial system, and it returns freedom and

property rights to the entire human race.

~Michael Saylor

CEO Microstrategy

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Why We Need

WE NEED WE NEED

TO BANK THE UNBANKEDTO BANK THE UNBANKED

For 953 million people in 20 countries with weakening

currencies, Bitcoin represents something greater than a

treasury asset. For them, it’s more like an ark of

encrypted energy to escape the flood.

~ Michael Saylor

CEO of Microstrategy

As of 2024, approximately 25% of the adults in

the world are unbanked, about 1.4 billion people!

This means they have no access to banking services

and cannot use ATM’s, debit cards, credit cards or

checks.

In addition, they are not able to get loans to start

a business, to buy a car or a house etc.

Sending and receiving money, or cashing checks, is

expensive.

They have to use money-transfer and check cashing

services like Western Union, that charge high rates

and take time to process.

It is especially expensive for people sending money

home to their families in other countries (remittances),

which can cost up to 10%, or 12% via a bank.

It is expensive and time-consuming for those receiv-

ing remittances, as they need to pay for transport and

go to the money-transfer office, often far from where

they live, to get the money their family member sent.

Oftentimes it is not safe for them to travel to these

offices.

Bitcoin, over the Lightning Network, provides an

instant solution to these problems now!

#bitcoin xes this

When has a technology that empowers

people ever been stopped?

~ Jeff Booth

uthor: The Price of Tomorrow

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Why We Need

WE NEED WE NEED

TO HELP PEOPLE ESCAPE TYRANNY TO HELP PEOPLE ESCAPE TYRANNY

AND CURRENCY COLLAPSEAND CURRENCY COLLAPSE

As we have seen, over the past couple of years,

governments can and do freeze the bank

accounts of those they disagree with.

This shows that, in essence, your money in the bank

is nothing more than an IOU that can be stolen

from you at any time.

In addition, when inflation runs rampant, as we are

curre

ntly seeing in 2024 in Venezuela (283%), Sudan

(63%), Lebanon (212%), Syria (79%),

Argentina (161%), Zimbabwe (47%), Turkey

(64%) and more, people’s life-savings are

vaporized, sometimes overnight, and there is

nothing they can do about it.

For people experiencing any of the above, bitcoin

becomes a real, immediate solution to

an otherwise untenable problem.

Considering that both tyranny and inflation is

on the rise in many places, one would be wise

to hedge against them by acquiring bitcoin now.

WE NEED WE NEED

TO AVOID CBDCSTO AVOID CBDCS

You may have heard that central banks are starting

to create CBDC’s, Central Bank Digital Currencies.

In May 2020,

35 countries were exploring this option.

In March 2022, 87 countries were actively looking

at, or had already launched, a pilot CBDC.

As of this writing in June 2024, 134 countries

representing 98% of global GDP are in the

research, development, pilot or launch stage.

CBDCs are very similar to the electronic money

you see in your online bank account, except that

by being natively digital, they are programmable

and 100% controllable.

A key difference with CBDCs is

central banks would have absolute control..

~Agustin Carstens

General Mgr, BIS - Bank for International

Settlements (The bank of all banks)

This means the government can program an expi-

ration date on your money, forcing you to spend it

before it expires.

www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker/

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Why We Need

They can also program other things into it, like only

allowing it to be spent at certain shops, websites or

jurisdictions, and not at others.

They could link it to: your credit score, your health

pass, digital ID and other social scores.

They can program any restrictions they see fit, based

on your specific score in one area, or on your

‘overall score’, or on what they deem the

‘economy’ needs.

In addition, they will be able to surveil every single

thing you do with your money.

We don’t know who’s using a $100 bill today and we

don’t know who’s using a 1,000 peso bill today.

The key difference with the CBDC is the central bank

will have absolute control on the rules and regulations

that will determine the use of that expression of

central bank liability, and also we will have

the technology to enforce that.

~Agustin Carstens

GM, BIS - Bank for International Settlements

Note: Saying “that expression of central bank lia-

bility” implies that your value, your life force, stored

as money, is actually ‘owned’ by the central bank.

WE NEED WE NEED

TO SAVE THE GARDENTO SAVE THE GARDEN

Bitcoin plucks out, at the root, THE biggest issue we

face, the Fiat Lie.

This is the lie of corrupted fiat currency, usury

and all

that comes with it to steal your time, while greatly

enriching those closest to the money printer.

The Fiat Lie is like a giant monster weed in your gar-

den, sucking all the nutrients from the soil, killing

all the mycelium, and blocking the sunlight so that

the other plants cannot thrive, and are struggling to

survive.

Suddenly when this noxious, monster Fiat Lie weed

is gone, Truth enters!

All the plants (the people) can begin to recover.

The soil (being peoples’ creativity, real goods and

services) can regenerate.

The mycelium (being authentic connection between

people) will regrow.

And the sunlight (unmediated life force) will shine

down once again upon us all!

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Why We Need

WE NEED WE NEED

TO FIX THE WORLDTO FIX THE WORLD

This is not a joke. #bitcoinfixesthis is a running meme

for good reason.

While this might sound somewhat ‘grandiose’,

let me

explain. When one considers the ‘way things are’,

one can see that ‘something is very wrong’.

Rampant destruction, environmental degradation,

splintered families and communities, loss of cul-

tures, languages, traditions, poverty increasing, mas-

sive wealth concentrating in the hands of the (very)

few, over-consumption, infinite money backing

politicians, lack of food and clean water for millions,

ever-increasing obesity and auto-immune disorders,

seemingly endless wars …

One would think that with the exponential growth in

NGOs, non-profit organizations, charitable founda-

tions and so-called government-backed institutions,

these issues would be getting less severe.

Instead, they are largely becoming more severe.

FIXES THIS FIXES THIS

FINANCIAL INCLUSIVITYFINANCIAL INCLUSIVITY

With bitcoin, everyone has access to the same

financial system, with the same rules for everyone.

No loopholes or back doors

or special deals

for anyone.

Everyone has the potential to be compensated for the

value they provide with the same real money,

created and maintained with the same rules.

Bitcoin is accessible to anyone, anywhere with

an internet connection.

ADDING VALUE TO THE WORLDADDING VALUE TO THE WORLD

Bitcoin incentivizes people to add real value to the

community and the marketplace, as this is the only

way to make more money.

If one is satisfied with less, one still benefits by work-

ing for a fair wage, and when one saves, those sav-

ings maintain their value over time.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Fixes This

FIXES THIS FIXES THIS

ENVIRONMENTENVIRONMENT

Sound money with a hard-capped supply creates a

very different dynamic to the one created by the

debt-based, unlimited money-printing which we

see taking place today.

Instead of an unstoppable drive to consume

ever

more, in a race to the bottom to pay

compounding interest rates on loans and debt

that will ultimately never get paid off, bitcoin

provides an off-ramp to a world where a low-time

preference is sought after.

This is a net benefit to people, plants and animals!

Rampant environmental destruction is replaced

with less consumption, less waste, and a

considered approach to production,

where the

market decides what holds true value, and

things are therefore built to last.

FIXES THIS FIXES THIS

WARWAR

The unlimited printing of the fiat monetary

system is what makes ‘forever-wars’ possible and

profitable.

Since the people are mostly in the dark about how

war spending works, or where the money for war

comes from, there is little to no accountability on

the part of government. Wars can drag on for

years in remote places, with no real oversight.

Starting with Vietnam, wars have become ‘credit

card wars’ (h/t @AlexGladstein), since the

government borrows money to fund the wars, and

then borrows more money to pay the interest on

the initial loans... rinse and repeat.

Since there would be no undue profits to be made,

government officials and corporations would not be

incentivized to promote or engage in war as a

viable option.

Efforts would gr

eatly increase to find ways to

come to peaceful, low-cost resolutions instead.

On a bitcoin standard, it would require the

people of a country to be willing to help pay for

a war.

They would likely only do so if it was

absolutely and clearly necessary, to defend their

families and country, with an end-goal in site.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Fixes This

FIXES THIS FIXES THIS

TIME PREFERENCETIME PREFERENCE

High-time preference leads to personal, societal and

environmental destruction. When our money is

losing value each day, we are ‘forced’ to be

impatient and to spend it as quickly as possible,

before it loses more value.

When our time is devalued by an ever-inflating fiat

currency, we lose connection to the value of our

time.

This leads to disconnection, and an undercurrent

of stress.

Attempts to alleviate the stress, and find meaning,

are distorted and become distractions such as

over-consumption of drugs, alcohol, shopping,

porn, fast food, short attention spans, addiction

to screens/social media, impulsive decisions etc.

Sound money on the other hand, which holds its

value over time and properly measures our

contributions through our work, leads to a low-

time preference, thoughtful quality of life, with

meaningful relationships, less consumption, deeper

connection, more profound conversation, long-term

goals and increased creativity.

High Time Preference: Instant gratification, Impatience,

Short-term planning

Low Time Preference: Delayed gratification, Patience,

Long-term planning

WHAT IS WHAT IS ? ?

“Writing a description for this thing

for general audiences is bloody hard.

There’s nothing to relate it to.”

~ Satoshi Nakamoto 2010-07-05

Total circulation will be 21,000,000

coins. It’ll be distributed to network

nodes (miners) when they make blocks,

with the amount cut in half every 4 years.

rst 4 years: 10,500,000 coins

next 4 years: 5,250,000 coins

next 4 years: 2,625,000 coins

next 4 years: 1,312,500 coins etc...

When that runs out, the system can support

transaction fees if needed. It’s based on

open market competition, and there will

probably always be nodes willing to

process transactions for free.

~ Satoshi Nakamoto 2009-01-09

Bitcoin is freedom money… in the sense that it has

the potential to free us all from the overarching

manipulation by, and control of, the central banking

system.

In bitcoin, the monetary rules are

the same for

EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE.

Bitcoin is inclusive, in the sense that anyone with an

internet connection can participate in the network,

and has to play by the same rules.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

What Is ?

IS:IS:

DECENTRALIZED

TRULY SCARCE

CENSORSHIP RESISTANT

A DISTRIBUTED LEDGER

INCORRUPTIBLE

PERMISSIONLESS

AUDITABLE

TRANSPARENT

IMMUTABLE

BORDERLESS

HARD TO COUNTERFEIT

PSUEDONYMOUS

FRICTIONLESS

TRUSTLESS

PEER-TO-PEER

}

This group of five

properties distinguish

bitcoin from every

other cryptocurrency!

Bitcoin is decentralized.

It is run on thousands of nodes worldwide, by thou-

sands of people who don’t know each other.

No one person, government or company can ever

control it.

You can run a node too, it’s easy ;)

By running your own node, you increase your

privacy and help to secure the network when you

verify your own transactions.

Don’t trust. Verify.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

What Is ?

Bitcoin (upper case ‘B’) is a monetary network.

bitcoin (lower case ‘b’) is the currency, or mone-

tary asset, that is issued on, and runs on the Bitcoin

network.

Bitcoin is the great incentivizer.

The genius of Satoshi was such that in bitcoin, for

the first time, both good and bad actors are incen-

tivized to play by the rules.

“The incentive may help encourage

nodes to stay honest.

If a greedy attacker is able to assemble

more CPU proof-of-worker than all the

honest nodes, he would have to choose

between using it to defraud people by

stealing back his payments,

or using it to generate new coins.

He ought to nd it more protable to play

by the rules, such rules that favour

him with more new coins than

everyone else combined,

than to undermine the system and

the validity of his own wealth.”

~ Satoshi Nakamoto 2008-10-31

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

What Is ?

Bitcoin is the first digitally native money, unlike

your online checking account, which is just a

digital form of central bank fiat.

Bitcoin is decentralized digital currency.

Bitcoin has no central authority.

Bitcoin is stateless.

Consider the implications ...

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that enables

instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world.

Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no

central authority: transaction management and money

issuance are carried out collectively by the network.

~ Bitcoin Wiki

en.bitcoin.it

Bitcoin is magic internet money.

No seriously, Bitcoin is the way we are going to fix

the world.

Seriously?

Yes.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

What Is ?

Bitcoin is a way to transfer value

of any amount

securely

instantly (on the Lightning Network)

between any two parties

anytime

24/7

anywhere

yes, anywhere

Think about that.

With e-currency based on cryptographic

proof, without the need to trust a third

party middleman, money can be secure and

transactions eortless.

~ Satoshi Nakamoto 2009-02-11

Bitcoin is (almost) costless to move with certainty.

I know with 100% certainty what I am receiving.

~ Michael Saylor CEO of Microstrategy

You can send $1.13, or 46c or 359 sats or 500,000,000

sats or $1 million to anyone, anywhere, anytime

via the Bitcoin Network, or the Lightning Network

built on Bitcoin.

And no one can stop you.

Can you do that with gold, silver, USD/GBP/EUR/YEN/

CYK/ZAR or any other central bank fiat currency?

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

What Is ?

Bitcoin is historical. This is the first time in history that

a truly decentralized, censorship-resistant, immutable,

borderless, permissionless, and incorruptible mon-

etary system with an absolute hard cap (21 million

coins) has ever been created.

Bitcoin is as significant to decentralizing power

and increasing financial inclusion, as the invention

of the printing press, and later the World Wide

Web, was to decentralizing control of, and

increasing access to, information.

A lot of people automatically

dismiss e-currency as a lost cause

because of all the companies that failed

since the 1990’s.

I hope it’s obvious it was only the

centrally controlled nature of those

systems that doomed them.

I think this is the rst time we’re trying

a decentralized, non-trust-based system.

~ Satoshi Nakamoto 2009-02-15

Bitcoin is a distributed, decentralized, transparent

and immutable LEDGER OF ACCOUNT.

Anyone in the world can see who owns what, at any

given moment, and it cannot be changed.

Except the ‘who’ isn’t a name, it is an address

made up of numbers and letters.

An example of a bitcoin address:

bc1qar0srrr7xfkvy5l643lydnw9re59gtzzwf5mdq

Bitcoin is therefore pseudonymous.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

What Is ?

Bitcoin is

� an impartial issuer of assets

� a store of value

� a medium of exchange

� and soon to be a unit of account

� as well as

� the means of exchange.

It is the issuer, the gold, the cash, the debit card AND

paypal, the bank, venmo, cashapp, western union

ALL ROLLED INTO ONE!

Bitcoin is a record keeper that uses mathematics and

computer science, instead of bankers, bookkeepers

and accountants.

It eliminates the middlemen, banks, govts, overdraft

fees, checking account fees, limited hours of service,

potential for censorship, frozen accounts, manipula-

tion of the money supply, interest rates, the IMF,

the WEF, the BIS, brick-and-mortar buildings, ATMs,

checks, chargebacks, the petro dollar, the euro

dollar, bank seigniorage, the cantillon effect,

fractional reserve banking, visa, mastercard, amex,

western union, days of waiting for your wire transfer

to go through ...

Instead of having someone between you and the

person whose hand you want to shake, you can just

shake their hand directly.

No need to ask permission to send your own

money!

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

What Is ?

Put Simply…Put Simply…

Bitcoin is digital property that no one can take from

you.

Owning bitcoin means owning the right to

send value

from a specific address that you control with

your private key to ANY other address you choose.

Bitcoin is a property right that is independent of

the monopoly on violence.

~ Robert Breedlove @breedlove22

Bitcoin is a once-in-a-species event.

The discovery of Bitcoin 15 years ago, is to

human financial freedom and sovereignty, as the

discovery of fire was to human flourishing over

500,000 years ago, and the printing

press was to

decentralizing access to human knowledge nearly

900 years ago.

Bitcoin is choice.

Bitcoin engenders sovereignty.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

What Is ?

Bitcoin is a true store of value.

It stores your most precious resource, your time, in

such a way that you can access it again later.

Bitcoin is like a high bandwidth conduit of energy to your

future self ... you can work today and Bitcoin will deep

freeze your energy for later use.

~ Robert Breedlove

The root of money is time

And the root of time is value

~ Guy Swann

Bitcoin is a timechain, literally.

Satoshi referred to the timechain many times in

his emails with the early devs.

You can measure time in blocks, since one block

is mined every ~10 minutes.

Our time is our most scarce and precious resource.

It is our literal life force.

True Money allows us to store our time.

It is the way we can acknowledge the time we ‘spent’.

We trade our time for money, which is simply a record

of our time and effort.

Bitcoin makes it possible to preserve our time such

that we have ‘access’ to it later in life, when

we are no longer able to work as we once did.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

What Is ?

Bitcoin is a store of value.

Bitcoin is a medium of exchange.

Bitcoin will one day

be a unit of account.

Bitcoin will one day be THE unit of account.

Bitcoin is scarce.

It has a hard cap of 21,000,000.

There will never be more.

Code is law here.*

* While it is ‘technically’ possible to change the

code, Satoshi’s genius prevents that, since increasing

(inflating) the supply would only serve to decrease the

value of all bitcoin in circulation. This therefore

incentivizes everyone to implicitly agree to maintain

the 21,000,000 hard cap supply.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Check out timec

haincalendar.com by @TC to check

the current block height, the available supply, and

numerous other metrics with regard to the bitcoin

timechain.

What Is ?

Bitcoin is infinitely divisible, without debasing the

supply.

One pizza is one pizza, regardless of how small the

slices are.

It is currently divisible to the eighth

decimal: 1.00000000

There are 100,000,000 satoshis in 1 bitcoin.

1 satoshi = 0.00000001

You can buy sats (satoshis) in any amount.

Bitcoin is the hardest, sou

ndest money we have ever

known.

It is even sounder than gold, since gold is not easily

divisible or portable, has low velocity (moves slowly)

and is not easily verifiable

Bitcoin has the most superior monetary properties

of any asset ever known.

SOUND MONEY PROPERTIES COMPARISON CHART

NOT

E: This is a general overview, there are nuances not

addressable in a chart.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

What Is ?

Bitcoin is the antidote.

Attempting to ‘stabilize’ the economy with bailouts,

money printing, QE and interest rate manipulation is

like having it on artificial life support

This ‘machine’ can only go on so long, before becom-

ing more and more expensive to maintain, and less

and less sustainable, leading to a serious breakdown.

Bitcoin fixes this

Bitcoin is better money.

Bitcoin is anti-fragile.

And it gets more so with every attempted attack,

with every government ban, with every piece of main-

stream media FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt).

Bitcoin has never been hacked.*

ough many have tried.

* Although you may have heard of

hacks, it is

the exchanges that have been hacked, not

the bitcoin protocol.

Remember:

 Not your keys, not your coins.

 Always withdraw your sats to your own wallet.

 Best to buy peer-to-peer.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

What Is ?

Bitcoin is a combination of:

economic incent

ives

software engineering

time value of money

tech adoption curves

emergent phenome

power of decentralization

low time preference

alignment of incentives

monetary neutrality

financial activism

immutability

... all working together to create trust

in a trustless, decentralized environment,

support a

 neutral

 secure

 censorship-resistant

 permissionless

 global

digital money and monetary network.

computer science

network protocols

electrical systems

game theory

conviction

mimetics

thermodynamics

network effects

cryptography

energy

true scarcity

Bitcoin is a deep rabbit hole, causing you to

question most everything you thought you knew ;)

Bitcoin is self-contained.

Bitcoin simply is.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

tcoin is. And that is enough.

~ @Beautyon

What Is ?

Bitcoin is a symbiotic relationship between:

Humans

and

A perfect solution to transfer and store

time/value.

Humans need bitcoin, bitcoin needs humans.

Bitcoin is the solution to the Byzantine General’s

problem.

This was once thought to be an unsolvable problem in

computer science.

This problem arises in decentralized systems, where

it was thought impossible to prove that message sent

= message received, since the ‘man-in-the-middle’

could be a bad actor and falsify the message.

In other words, it seemed impossible to form consen-

sus amongst a network of distributed and indepen-

dent computers.

By using a timestamp along with a cryptograph-

ically secured distributed ledger, Satoshi solved this

problem.

His solution is known as Nakamoto’s consensus.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

What Is ?

Bitcoin is the solution to the double-spend problem.

This means that when you send bitcoin, the receiver

can be sure that you actually owned the bitcoin you

sent, and, that once you sent it to them you cannot

spend those coins again by sending them to someone

else (double-spending).

Just like me giving you an orange. Once it leaves

my hands and is in your hands, I no longer have

the orange to give to someone else.

..double-spends are never accepted into the

transaction pool, so every node bears

witness to which transaction it saw rst

by working to put it into a block.

~ Satoshi Nakamoto 2010-12-09

Bitcoin is a bearer asset, like cash or gold, held by

the bearer (owner) directly.

This means that, once sent (given), it goes directly

to the new bearer (owner), with no middleman

(bank) needed to process the transaction.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

What Is ?

Bitcoin is P2P (peer-to-peer).

Bitcoin is censorship-resistant.

This means that no one has the power to hold up

or to prevent a transaction from going through to

the new bearer.

Bitcoin flows freely.

There can be no gatekeepers.

Bitcoin is trustless.

The root problem with conventional

currency is all the trust that’s required

to make it work. The central bank must be

trusted not to debase the currency, but

the history of at currencies is full of

breaches of that trust.

~ Satoshi Nakamoto on the importance of

Bitcoin’s trustless nature.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

What Is ?

Bitcoin is code.

Code is speech.

Check out github.com/bitcoin

This is currently the main bitcoin repository.

Click around to view the code, the pull requests,

the reviews, the commits, the bips (bitcoin

improvement proposals) and the developers who are

working on, maintaining and improving the

creation that is bitcoin.

Bitcoin is the internet of money.

When one stops to consider that everything else is

going/has gone digital, including:

usic

books

banking

movies

education

photos

phone calls

radio

maps

games

meetings

and the list goes on (for better or for worse)

… then one sees how it is really a logical step for

money to follow.

BUT, we need BITCOIN, NOT CBDCs!

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

What Is ?

SATOSHI’s GENIUSSATOSHI’s GENIUS

Bitcoin is ALL of the following:

� A decentralized, distributed ledger

� A payment system

� And the value itself being transferred.

Outside of bitcoin, money creation (issuance), and

accounting (keeping track of money received/spent),

is centralized, and includes the following separate

layers:

 Various Central Banks' issuance of money

 The ledgers of account, whether written or digital

 The trusted

parties who enter the numbers into

the ledgers

 The trusted parties who keep the physical ledgers

safe, or who maintain the computer databases

 The trusted security teams who work to prevent

hacking of the databases

With bitcoin, all these layers are folded into one!

While this might sound more centralized, Satoshi’s

genius made it such that the opposite is true.

It is 100% Decentralized!

Bitcoin has NO central point of failure.

The only way it could all be rolled into one, and be

decentralized, is that the distributed ledger is

main-tained by a voluntary, world-wide, ad hoc

group of people voluntarily mining and/or running

full nodes.

And, the incentives of the network encourage every-

one to play by the rules.

You can join us!

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Bitcoin is Bitcoin is

a peaceful revolutiona peaceful revolution

Bitcoin is HopeBitcoin is Hope

HOW DOES HOW DOES WORK? WORK?

Rules not Rulers

tik-tok/

/next block

Cryptography (noun

) /krɪpˈtɑː

ɡrəfi

: the enciphering and deciphering of messages

in secret code or cipher

: the computerized encoding and

decoding of information

~ Merriam Webster Dictionary

Hashing (verb) /ˈhæʃɪŋ/

: a method of encryption

: the process of using a mathematical algorithm against

data to produce a numeric value (a hash digest)

that is representative of that data.

~ crsc.nist.gov

Remember:

The bitcoin ecosystem includes >>

bitcoin: the digital monetary asset

Bitcoin: the payment network of miners and nodes

1 bitcoin = 100,000,000 satoshis (sats)

Bitcoin uses proof-of-work, public-key cryptography

and peer-to-peer networking, to process

and verify

payments in a global, distributed, online ledger.

(You can buy sats, a fraction of a bitcoin)

We dene an electronic coin as a chain of

digital signatures. Each owner transfers

the coin to the next by digitally signing

a hash of the previous transaction and the

public key of the next owner and adding

these to the end of the coin. A payee can

verify the signatures to verify the chain

of ownership.

~ Satoshi Nakamoto

Bitcoin White Paper, Pt.2, 2008

Describing how a bitcoin transaction works

in the distributed ledger

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

How Does Work?

THE BITCOIN ECOSYSTEM..THE BITCOIN ECOSYSTEM..

consists of Miners, Nodes, Users, Developers

all working independently,

and simultaneously interdependently,

to enliven that which is

BITCOIN!

MINERSMINERS

Specialized nodes (computers called ASICS) that

‘mine’ the blocks that become part of the bitcoin

blockchain.

In so doing, they verify the validated transactions

made by users, mint new bitcoins and secure

the entire network.

USERSUSERS

You and me. All of us. The people.

Acknowledging and appreciating the value of

goods and services provided, we transact: give

and receive bitcoin, or we store it for use later, as

needed.

NODESNODES

Nodes are computers that run the bitcoin

software.

There are thousands of nodes making up the

decentralized, global, voluntary network that

validates transactions (thereby preventing

double-spending, and helping to secure the

system).

DEVELOPERS (DEVS)DEVELOPERS (DEVS)

Coders, programmers & digital authors who work

to maintain and scale the network, improve security,

privacy and user interface, and translate code into

language and visuals that the rest of us can com-

prehend and utilize.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

How Does Work?

A BITCOIN TRANSACTION:A BITCOIN TRANSACTION:

Ali wants to send Benji some bitcoin:

1. Ali o

pens the bitcoin wallet app on her phone and

clicks ‘Send’.

2. Benji

opens his wallet

app

and

clicks ‘Receive’

3. If

they

are

together:

Ali scans the QR code on the

wallet app on Benji’s phone.

4. If they are not together: Ali copies and pastes the

address Benji texts her, into the address field in her

wallet.

5. Ali enters the amount to send, and hits ‘Send’.

6. A few seconds later, Benji will see the amount

pending in his wallet.

7. If it was sent through Lightning it will be confirmed

almost instantly, and is almost free.

8. If it was sent ‘onchain’ (on the Bitcoin mainchain),

it includes a small fee, and usually takes around 10

minutes to be confirmed. It can take longer,

depending on network traffic.

A BITCOIN TRANSACTION UNDER A BITCOIN TRANSACTION UNDER

THE HOOD: THE HOOD:

(Definitions of the terms that are in bold follow)

1. When Ali sends those sats

to Benji, the payment

transaction is broadcast to the network.

2. The transaction gets validated by nodes that

make sure Ali really has the bitcoin to send, and

that it has not previously been spent (to prevent

double-spending) .

3. Once validated by a node, it waits in the mempool

with other peoples' transactions.

4. The transactions in the mempool get added in a

block to the blockchain when a miner finds a nonce

that satisfies the difficulty algorithm.

5. Each block has a timestamp.

6. This creates immutability, and helps protect the

difficulty algorithm adjustment from being

manipulated.

7. Each block represents one confirmation for the

transactions included in it.

8. As blocks are added, on average every ten mins,

the immutability of the blockchain increases.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

How Does Work?

TRANSACTION ~ Sending/receiving bitcoin

�

A transfer of value in the form of satoshis, from

one bitcoin holder to another.

NODE ~ A ‘branch’ of the decentralized bitcoin

‘bank’. Anyone can run a node.

� Nodes are computers that run the bitcoin

software.

� Nodes, along with miners, users and

developers, form the peer-to-peer Bitcoin

network.

� Imagine each full node as a ledger containing the

balances of every private key.

� They interact, and reach consensus (agree) with

one another by accepting and validating

transactions from other nodes, along with blocks

from miners, and then relaying these onward to

other nodes.

� Nodes are run by an ad-hoc group of thousands

of volunteers around the world.

� A full node is one that has independently

validated the entire Bitcoin blockchain, since the

Genesis Block mined by Satoshi in 2009.

� The more active nodes there are, the more distrib-

uted, and therefore resilient, the whole network

becomes.

� There are currently over 19,000 reachable full

nodes worldwide, & far more unreachable ones.

� All participating nodes are equal.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

BROADCAST ~ Letting the network know you are

sending bitcoin to someone.

� When you click ‘Send’, your wallet signs the trans-

action with your private key and broadcasts it,

letting all the other nodes know of your intention

to transfer value so that they can validate the

transaction.

MEMPOOL ~ A transaction waiting room

� This is the ‘waiting room’ where validated trans-

actions are sent to be picked up by a miner and

added to a block.

BLOCK ~ A ‘page’ in the bitcoin ledger

� The Bitcoin distributed ledger is made up of dig-

ital ‘blocks’.

� Each block contains verified bitcoin transactions

that keep the global ledger accurate and current.

They also contain the nonce, a time-stamp and a

hash of the previous block, all of which

contribute to the immutability of the bitcoin

blockchain.

BLOCKCHAIN ~ The whole bitcoin ledger

� The bitcoin blockchain, also known as the

timechain, is the distributed ledger that contains

every block, and every bitcoin transaction ever

made since the Genesis block was mined by

Satoshi in 2009.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

How Does Work?

MINER ~ A specialized node that both confirms

transactions and issues new bitcoins.

�

Bitcoin miners are specialized computers. They

direct lots of computing power (hashrate) in a

digital lottery to guess a number that will satisfy

the current difficulty algorithm, thereby ‘mining’

a ‘block’ (a piece of the ledger).

� A mined block is timestamped and added to the

blockchain (aka timechain).

DIFFICULTY ALGORITHM ~ A special, adaptive

design that helps keep new bitcoin issuance

predictable.

� This was one of Satoshi’s genius solutions to help

protect the bitcoin issuance from outrunning itself,

as more advanced computers are developed.

� When more miners come online, the target num-

ber (nonce) in the ‘lottery’ gets smaller, and there-

fore more difficult to find.

� When less miners are online, it gets easier.

� The algorithm adjusts automatically every 2016

blocks (about every two weeks), to ensure a pre-

dictable rate of supply, where one block is mined

on average every ten minutes.

NONCE ~ A 32-bit random number

� A 32-bit random number that miners add to the

end of the hashed list of transactions, to attempt

to satisfy the difficulty target to mine a block.

� When a miner finds a nonce that leads to

generating a hash below the current target

number, they have mined a block and get to add

it to the blockchain and claim the bitcoin block

reward.

TIMESTAMP ~ Stamps the time

�

Every block mined has a timestamp added to it.

� This is for added security, immutability and to help

establish the difficulty adjustment

IMMUTABILITY ~ Cannot be changed.

�

This means the blockchain is ‘set in digital stone’.

PROOF-OF-WORK (PoW) ~ Cryptographic proof

that difficult work was done to satisfy an algorithm.

�

Miners use the PoW algorithm to prove they have

used a lot of computational power via electricity

(work), in order to achieve consensus in a decen-

tralized manner, and to prevent corrupt actors

from spamming the network.

PUBLIC KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY ~ A process that

creates the digital keys to access your bitcoins.

� This is a system whereby two keys are created

through a cryptographic algorithm.

� One key is public - Like your bank account num-

ber, that you can give people to send bitcoin to

you for goods, gifts or services.

� The other key is private - Only you have a copy,

and you use it to unlock access to your bitcoin,

just as a password unlocks your online bank

account.

� You must secure your private key very well,

since anyone who has access to it has access to

your bitcoin.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

How Does Work?

PEER-TO-PEER (P2P) NETWORK ~ A decentralized

network with no middlemen

� Full nodes (

peers) collaboratively

maintain

peer-

to-peer

network

for

transaction and

block valida

tion

and verification

� In

this

typ

e of

network, each node is able to

both provide/request data to/from its peers.

� There are no gatekeepers in a P2P network.

LIGHTNING NETWORK ~ A network built on bit-

coin that makes it possible to send or receive

sats very fast and almost for free.

� L

ightning is a Layer 2 scaling solution. This means

it pr

ovides

a way for bitcoin to scale, giving it the

potential

to pr

ocess millions

of transactions per

second (TPS)

WALLET ~ A ‘wallet’ holds the cryptographic

keys to access your bitcoin.

� It can be on a phone, computer or on a separate

small hardware device (the safest).

� A bitcoin wallet would more accurately be called a

signing device. Your bitcoin never actually leaves

the blockchain, the digital ledger.

� When you wish to send or spend your bitcoin, the

wallet will sign and broadcast the transaction to

the network, so that it can be validated and

added into a block on the blockchain.

DEVELOPERS ~ Computer programmers

� Cypherpunks/programmers that maintain the net-

work, improve security, check for bugs, submit

pull requests (for new updates or features), review

pull requests, audit the code.

PUBLIC KEY ~ Like a bank account number for

receiving bitcoin.

� You can give it to people to send you bitcoin,

just like you would give your account number to

someone so they can send you fiat.

PRIVATE KEY ~ For securing, accessing and send-

ing bitcoin, like the key to a safety deposit box.

�

A bitcoin private key is a secret string of numbers

and letters that allows you to send/spend your

bitcoin.

� Only you have a copy. **It is very important to

keep it very safe and secure, as anyone who

obtains a copy can spend your bitcoin.**

DISTRIBUTED LEDGER ~ A ledger maintained by

everyone who wishes to help maintain it.

� Instead of a centrally-controlled ledger that is

invisible to the public, like one that a bank main-

tains, Bitcoin is a transparent, open, decentralized

ledger visible to anyone, anytime.

� The addresses are strings of letters and numbers,

with no names attached.

� While pseudonymous, it is possible to track trans-

actions, especially if the bitcoin was bought from

a centralized KYC exchange.

� The Bitcoin network is trustless and anyone can

audit it anytime, unlike a bank where one must

trust that the ledgers are being kept honestly.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

How Does Work?

MORE ON MININGMORE ON MINING

Bitcoin is ‘mined’ by specially designed, powerful

computers all over the world, called ASIC miners

- Application Specific Integrated Circuit miners.

Whatsminer M50S

Miners devote computing power AKA hashrate,

via electricity to the network, to add blocks to the

Bitcoin blockchain.

These computers run 24 hours a day, usually in sets

of a few, to a few hundred or thousand.

They are basically running a lottery. When one of

them guesses a number (the nonce) that generates a

hash that satisfies the current difficulty target, they

get to add the next block to the timechain.

All the above is the proof-of-work (PoW) needed to

birth new bitcoins.

Antminer S21 Pro

401 Supra

BITCOIN BLOCK REWARDBITCOIN BLOCK REWARD

For their work, miners get:

� A subsidy, in the form of freshly minted bitcoins.

� Plus, the fees from the verified transactions

included in that block.

When you send bitcoin to someone, that transaction

includes a fee and needs to be verified by a miner,

and then included in a block.

The bitcoin block subsidy gets cut in half every four

years.

It is currently 3.125 bitcoin per block that is mined.

The next ‘halving’ will be in 2028, at which point

the block reward will drop to 1.5625 bitcoin per

block mined.

As mentioned before, this keeps the issuance stable.

In the year 2140, the last piece of bitcoin will be

mined.

After that, miners will only get the fees from the trans-

actions they verify in each block.

= Subsidy + Fees

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

How Does Work?

In a few decades when the reward gets too

small, the transaction fee will become the

main compensation for nodes (miners).

~ Satoshi Nakamoto

Bitcointalk.org, 2010-02-14

Miners will always be needed to verify transactions,

thereby keeping the network updated and secure.

While one needs to be aware that there are costs

involved, and profitability is negligible for home

miners, it is a powerful way to help secure and keep

the network decentralized.

Miners last quite a few years. There are currently many

Antminer S9’s for example, that have been running

for over 6 years.

When miners are retired they can easily be taken

apart and recycled.

Tons of fascinating innovation is happening, with

people using the excess heat from miners to

heat their homes, saunas, greenhouses, hot tubs,

dry jerky and vegetables, heat decks, dry wood and

more!

A WORD ON THE A WORD ON THE

LIGHTNING NETWORKLIGHTNING NETWORK

Bitcoin blocks are intentionally small* (1MB each),

resulting in the bitcoin mainchain being able to pro-

cess about 7 transactions per second (TPS).

Visa processes about 24,000 TPS.

Also, it generally takes about 10 minutes for the

first confirmation to go through on a mainchain

transaction (since a block is mined on

average every ~10 minutes).

This is not practical if you are at a store and want to

make a quick payment for your goods.

* Important Detail: The reason the blocks are small,

is to keep the timechain small enough for anyone to

run their own node at home, which helps keep the

network decentralized. Satoshi realized the

importance of this



Bitcoin users might get increasingly

tyrannical about limiting the size of

the chain so it’s easy for lots of users

and small devices.

~ Satoshi Nakamoto, 2010-12-10

commended Reading

 The Blocksize War by Jonathan Bier

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

A Word On The Lightning Network

Enter, the Lightning Network (LN), a Layer 2 bitcoin

scaling solution.

‘Layer 2’ means it is built on top of bitcoin.

‘Scaling Solution’ means it allows the network to:

� Vastly increase the speed of processing.

� Vastly increase the number of transactions it

can process per second.

� Make micropayments possible.

The Lightning Network can be (sort of) thought of like

a tab you might keep with some friends at the bar.

You keep track between all of you who owes what

(like a Lightning Network channel), and at the end

of the night your group settles with the barman

(‘the mainchain’).

Lightning channels, however, can stay open for

days, weeks, months or years before being

‘settled’ on the mainchain.

BENEFITS OF BENEFITS OF : :

VOLUME - The volume of transactions per second is

in essence limitless, as countless channels can be

opened at the same time, each keeping their own

‘tab’.

MICROPAYMENTS - You can send as little as 1

satoshi (currently $0.0006).

SPEED - It usually takes between a millisecond and a

few seconds to receive a payment.

PRIVACY - Transactions are not stored on the open,

public bitcoin blockchain. In some ways it is even

more private than cash, because with Lightning,

even the other party does not necessarily know who

you are, as your payment often ‘hops’ through

different channels to reach the receiver.

To be clear, I am not saying it is 100% impossible to

uncover, just far more so than with payments on the

bitcoin mainchain.

It would take an immense amount of time and energy

to establish with certainty who was making payments

to whom, and it would not always be possible to

do so at all.

Enjoy amazing visualizations of the current state

of the Lightning Network at:

� lnrouter.app/gr

aph

� mempool.space/graphs/lightning/nodes-

channels-map

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

A Word On The Lightning Network

Bitcoin itself cannot scale to have every

single nancial transaction in the

world be broadcast to everyone and

included in the blockchain.

There needs to be a secondary level of

payment systems which is lighter

weight and more ecient.

~ Hal Finney, 2010-12-30, Early cypherpunk

& the second person to run Bitcoin

Think of it like this:

Bitcoin: Savings Account ~ Slower transactions for

larger amounts.

Lightning: Checking Account ~ Faster transactions

for smaller amounts.

Bitcoin enhanced by Lightning can be viewed as both a

product (digital property) and a service (open monetary

network). The ability to transfer monetary energy through

time and space without government intervention or

conventional banking is enormously valuable to humanity.

~ Michael Saylor, CEO

Microstrategy

Learn more about Lightning here:

lopp.net/lightning-information.html

HOW TO HOW TO

To Bitcoin: (verb) /tuːˈbɪtkɔɪn/

I hereby propose making ‘to bitcoin’ a verb,

that encapsulates the fullness of participating

in the bitcoin/Bitcoin eco-system.

Ok, now that you have, hopefully ;) been orange-

pilled, and are ready to become your own bank, par-

ticipating in the world’s first global freedom money,

here comes the fun part!

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

How To

BECOMING YOUR OWN BANKBECOMING YOUR OWN BANK

This is where the really epic shift in becoming fina-

cially self-sovereign lies, and, it can take time to

really, truly grasp what this means.

Some intention and dedication is required to

understand how to do it in the most secure way

possible.

In the spirit of keeping this book ‘the simplest

bitcoin book ever written’, I will provide an

outline here, and then I offer resources at the end

for you to dive in to that go much deeper than

the scope of this primer.

HODL: (verb) /ho’dill/

: to hold on to your bitcoin

: to not sell

- From a 2013 bitcointalk.org post, where the poster

professing to be drunk, misspelled ‘HOLD’

- bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=375643.0

While the network is still growing, there is much

value in the millions of global hodl’rs of last resort.

ACQUIRING BITCOINACQUIRING BITCOIN

Bitcoin enters the market by miners selling some of

the bitcoins they receive as rewards, in order to pay

for their operating costs.

You can acquire bitcoin by buying on a peer-to-peer

trading platform, by accepting it as payment for

goods or services you offer, as a gift, or by mining

it. (A very last resort, not recommended, is to buy it

from a registered exchange).

When you receive it, you are technically receiving the

private keys with which to access your bitcoin.

Remember: The bitcoin itself never leaves the

timechain.

You can acquire bitcoin either anonymously, or

with ID verification (KYC - Know Your Customer)

KYC is required by law to fulfill AML (anti-money laun-

dering laws) when buying from exchanges.

Buying non-KYC bitcoin preserves your right to

privacy in the future.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

How To

Non-KYC >> AnonymouslyNon-KYC >> Anonymously

How to Get non-KYC Bitcoin (No ID):

RECOMMENDED

1. Download a bitcoin-only wallet app (see pg 102).

2. Choose a method (see below).

3. Buy, receive or mine bitcoin.

4. Withdraw your bitcoin to your wallet.

5. HODL, or spend and replace.

Buy it from Robosats, Bisq, HodlHodl, Peach Bitcoin.

Buy it from a bitcoin ATM - Be sure to check, as

some require ID. Others just ask for a name and

number (you can use a temporary phone #).

Buy an Azteco voucher - Visit azte.co for locations.

Earn it for work you do - Ask to be paid in bitcoin.

Offer to discount your price.

Buy it in person at a bitcoin meet-up.

Mine it - It is getting easier to mine at home, or

you can join a mining pool, but then DYOR to stay

KYC-free. Ocean Pool is a great option.

KYC >> ID Veriﬁcation RequiredKYC >> ID Veriﬁcation Required

How to Buy KYC Bitcoin (with ID):

NOT RECOMMENDED

1. Download a bitcoin-only wallet app (see pg 102).

2. Choose a bitcoin-only exchange.

3. Create an account & link a payment method.

4. Fulfill the KYC requirements.

5. Buy bitcoin.

6. Withdraw

your bitcoin to your own wallet.

7. HODL or spend and replace.

Be aware that your bitcoin will be forever linked to

your identity if you buy it this wa

y, thus forfeiting

future pseudonymity with regard to these purchases.

If you choose this method, I recommend finding a

reputable bitcoin-only exchange.

Be sure the exchange allows you to withdraw your

bitcoin to your own wallet!

Exchanges are required by law to ‘KYC’ you.

They will take your full name, address, social security

number, email, phone number and often a photo of

you holding your ID.

Confirm that the exchange has both phone and email

support for customer service.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

How To

Have them walk you through sending your bitcoin

from your account with them to your own wallet, so

that you are self-custodying your bitcoin

= Holding your own keys.

� Note: This does NOT erase the fact you

bought bitcoin from them.

� Transactions are traceable on-chain, and in

many countries you are liable for taxation when

spending your bitcoin.

If you want to buy through Venmo or Paypal, be

sure to first confirm that you can still withdraw

your sats to your own self-hosted wallet. In the

past you could not do so.

As they say:

“No keys, No cheese” or

“Not your keys, Not your bitcoin”

What this means is, so long as a centralized service is

holding the private keys to your bitcoin, there remains

the possibility that their platform gets hacked, or that

they undergo regulatory capture and you lose your

bitcoin.

Always withdraw your bitcoin to your own

self-hosted wallet as soon as you have

bought it.

EO 6102EO 6102

In 1933 President Roosevelt issued Executive Order

6102, which required every US citizen to turn in

most of their gold in exchange for bank notes.

The gold was valued at $20.67/oz. The following

year, the government increased the price of gold to

$35/oz with the Gold Reserve Act of 1934,

effectively devaluing the notes people had

received by almost half, since the value of their

notes never went up with the inflated gold price.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

How To

It took until 1975, 42 years later, for EO6102 to

be repealed, and for private citizens to once again

be allowed to hold more than 5oz of gold.

At this stage, we have little idea how the regulators

are going to respond to bitcoin as it continues to

gain popularity and more widespread adoption.

So far, there has been a mixed reception. For the

time being however, it seems that many

understand, or perhaps just accept, that bitcoin

cannot ultimately be stopped.

There are a number of politicians starting to speak

in support of bitcoin as part of their platform.

There are also some against it.

Being an election year in the US, 2024 is very

interesting, with all three major Presidential

candidates accepting bitcoin campaign donations!

Ultimately, it would be in the

interest of every gov-

ernment to embrace it and add it to their balance

sheet, as a hedge against their rapidly inflating

fiat currencies.

El Salvador made it a form of legal tender in 2021.

It will be interesting to see which country is next.

100

SECURELY STORING BITCOINSECURELY STORING BITCOIN

Once you have taken the life-changing step of buying

Being your own bank is a powerful form of

self-sovereignty.

It needs to be taken seriously!

* Please DYOR - Do Your Own Research * beyond

my basic recommendations here.

The bitcoin ecosystem is evolving every minute.

Nostr, Twitter and bitcointalk.org are good

places to stay on top of the latest developments.

CHECK OUT THESE SITES FOR TUTORIALS:CHECK OUT THESE SITES FOR TUTORIALS:

� BTCSessions.ca by @BTCSessions

� Bitcoiner.guide by @QnA

� Armantheparman.com by @ArmanTheParman

� @SouthernBitcoiner on YouTube

� @wickedsmartbitcoin on YouTube

your first , you need to decide how to securely

store it.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

101

How To

BITCOIN-ONLY WALLETSBITCOIN-ONLY WALLETS

Bitcoin is best stored in your own

� self-hosted

� non-custodial

� bitcoin-only ‘wallet’

A ‘wallet’ is actually a piece of software which is a

signing device. It contains your private keys which it

uses to sign a transaction you send (broadcast).

HOT WALLETHOT WALLET

This is an online bitcoin wallet app that you down-

load to your phone or computer.

It is best used for smaller amounts, for day-to-day

spending.

COLD STORAGE WALLETCOLD STORAGE WALLET

This is an offline wallet. Also known as a hardware

wallet.

It is a separate hardware device on which to store

your keys.

hile both work well, it is generally recommended

to make use of a cold wallet once you have over

$500-1000 worth of bitcoin, as it is more secure.

102

HOT WALLET APPS - Non-Custodial

Blue Wallet, Muun Wallet, Mutiny Wallet

Sparrow Wallet, Green Wallet, Phoenix

Wallet, Zeus Wallet, Breez Wallet

COLD STORAGE WALLETS - Non-Custodial

Cold Card, Trezor, Foundation Passport,

Blockstream Jade, Seed Signer, Bitbox,

ALWAYS purchase your cold storage wallet direct

from the manufacturer, to be certain it has not been

tampered with.

� Please DYOR to compare the features and

trade-offs between the wallets shown below.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

103

How To

When setting up your wallet, be sure to write down

the 12- or 24-word Seed Phrase on paper.

Keep it ofine. Never take a screenshot of it.

STORE THE SEED PHRASE VERY SAFELY.

VERY, VERY SAFELY!

Many companies make metal seed plates into

which you can punch your seed phrase for added

fire/water/damage protection. Highly recommend!

If you were to lose access to your hot or cold wallet,

you can restore it with the seed phrase and recover

your funds.

You can do so on any wallet that supports the same

type of BIP39 seed phrase (12/24 words).

Best practice would be to store the wallet

descriptor of your wallet in addition to your seed.

REMEMBER: Anyone who has your seed has

access to your bitcoin!

Fol

low @BTCSessions on YouTube for excellent

tutorials on wallet set-up, and lots more.

104

ON PRIVACYON PRIVACY

Privacy when buying (non-KYC), securing, storing

and spending bitcoin is becoming more and more

important, especially in light of recent events with

bank accounts being seized/frozen.

In addition, general digital privacy is critical if you

wish to gain online sovereignty, and protect your-

self from undue surveillance and fraud.

Below are some current privacy-focused services.

It is beyond the scope of this book to go deeply into

each of the following, so absolutely DYOR, and

follow the accounts I mention below on Nostr or

Twitter for updates.

Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic

age. Privacy is not secrecy. A private matter is something

one doesn’t want the whole world to know, but a secret

matter is something one doesn’t want anybody to know.

Privacy is the power to selectively reveal

oneself to the world.

~Eric Hughes, From ‘A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto’

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

105

On Privacy

PRIVACY GUIDESPRIVACY GUIDES

� Bitcoiner.guide @BitcoinQ_A

� Econoalchemist.com @econoalchemist

� Sethforprivacy.com @sethforprivacy

� diverter.hostyourown.tools @Diverter_NoKYC

� Citadeldispatch.com @ODELL on Nostr

� KYCnot.me

� Lopp.net @lopp > Click Resources > Privacy

� Privacytools.io

� Enegnei.github.io

� Restoreprivacy.com @ResPrivacy

� Keepitsimplebitcoin.com @KISBitcoin

� nbtv.media @naomibrockwell

VPN (Virtual Private Network to VPN (Virtual Private Network to

Obscure your ISP)Obscure your ISP)

� Mullvad.net - Pay with bitcoin

� IVPN.net - Pay with bitcoin

TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION APPSTWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION APPS

� Yubi Key - Hardware

� 2FAS - Android-only App

� Bitwarden Authenticator - Android & iOS App

PRIVACY-FOCUSED BROWSERSPRIVACY-FOCUSED BROWSERS

� TOR

� Firefox Focus

� Mullvad Browser

� Duck Duck Go

106

ENCRYPTED ‘NOTES’ APPENCRYPTED ‘NOTES’ APP

� StandardNotes.com

PRIVACY-FOCUSED SEARCH ENGINESPRIVACY-FOCUSED SEARCH ENGINES

� Duck Duck Go

� Kagi - Paid and ad-free

� SearXNG

� Swisscows

� Mojeek

PRIVACY-FOCUSED MESSAGING APPSPRIVACY-FOCUSED MESSAGING APPS

� Signal

� SimpleX

� Session

� Telegram - 'Secret Chat' setting

RUNNING YOUR OWN NODERUNNING YOUR OWN NODE

� Bitcoin Knots

� Bitcoin Core

� Ronin Dojo

� Run Citadel

� Raspi Blitz

� Umbrel - If you just run your bitcoin node on it.

CELL PHONES/SINGLE USE PH #’SCELL PHONES/SINGLE USE PH #’S

� Run Graphene OS on an Android Pixel

� Silent.link - Accepts bitcoin & Lightning

� Text Verified - Accepts bitcoin

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

107

On Privacy

PRIVATE SPENDINGPRIVATE SPENDING

� The Bitcoin Company

� Bitrefill

� Bit.Store

� Note: Always read the small print

PRIVATE RECEIVING ADDRESS BOTPRIVATE RECEIVING ADDRESS BOT

� PayNym

DECENTRALIZED SOCIAL MEDIADECENTRALIZED SOCIAL MEDIA

� Nostr

The possibility to be anonymous or

pseudonymous relies on you not revealing

any identifying information about

yourself in connection with the bitcoin

addresses you use. If you post your

bitcoin address on the web, then you’re

associating that address and any

transactions with it with the name you

posted under.

If you posted under a handle that

you haven’t associated with your real

identity, then you’re still pseudonymous.

~ Satoshi Nakamoto 2009-11-25

For greater privacy, it’s best to use

bitcoin addresses only once. You can

change addresses as often as you want.

~Satoshi Nakamoto 2009-11-25

108

DISPELLING DISPELLING FUD FUD

(Fear Uncertainty Doubt)

Below are some common arguments against, or fears

about, bitcoin.

These are largely unfounded, resulting from igno-

rance, or perhaps incomplete understanding.

I provide brief rebuttals to each here, and at the end

you will find pointers to more in-depth resources

rebutting all the FUD.

BITCOIN USES TOO MUCH ENERGYBITCOIN USES TOO MUCH ENERGY

The heat from your computer is not wasted

if you need to heat your home… It’s

equal cost if you generate the heat

with your computer.

~ Satoshi Nakamoto 2010-08-09

At rst, the production of a commodity simply because it

is costly seems quite wasteful. However, the unforgeably

costly commodity repeatedly adds value by enabling

benecial wealth transfers. More of the cost is recouped

every time a transaction is made possible or made

less expensive. The cost, initially a complete waste, is

amortized over many transactions.

~ Nick Szabo

Cypherpunk

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

109

Dispelling FUD

‘Too much’ energy is a value proposition that must

consider how we value the purpose of the energy

use.

When one considers that the Christmas lights in the

US use as much electricity as the entire Bitcoin net-

work, then perhaps one can see that it is all relative!

Using energy, even a whole lot of energy, to secure

the hardest, most censorship-resistant money

humanity has ever known, is more than worth it.

In comparing bitcoin energy usage to that used by

the legacy system, we also need to consider the ‘full

stack’ on both sides:

Bitcoin Ecosystem Legacy Fiat System

ASIC Miners BIS

Nodes Central Banks

Hardware Wallets National/Regional Banks

Software Wallet Apps Military Industrial Complex

Backup Data Centers

Physical Money Printing

Online Banking Apps

By using bitcoin, we will ultimately reduce energy

usage in a multitude of other areas, most notably

by no longer needing the Military Industrial

Complex to protect the petro dollar.

Network of ATMs

Physical Money Distribution

110

Also, the rampant consumerism that is required to

keep the debt-based system afloat, will over time

be curtailed, as hard money naturally incentivizes

prudent spending and saving (since your savings

will actually hold their value, a concept we have not

experienced since being off the gold standard).

Lastly, and importantly, bitcoin mining is already

reducing pollution by capturing flared natural gas

and using it to power the miners. Since miners seek

low electricity costs, it is also likely to be the biggest

driver toward renewable low cost energy, since the

incentives match up.

Informed deep dives on Bitcoin and Energy have

been written by Daniel Batten on batcoinz.com, Troy

Cross, Jyn Urso, the video ‘This Machine Greens’

by Swan Bitcoin on YouTube, 'Dirty Coin', A

bitcoin mining documentary, and an

excellent episode of the ‘What is Money’ show

(WiM161) with B.Quittem, among many others.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

111

Dispelling FUD

BITCOIN IS A PONZIBITCOIN IS A PONZI

Bitcoin is not a Ponzi:

� Old investors are not paid any money by new

investors.

� When buying bitcoin, no one is promising a return

on your investment.

� There is no leadership or promotions team.

� There was no pre-mine.

� Read: ‘Why Bitcoin is Not a Ponzi’ by Lyn Alden

for more.

BITCOIN IS TOO SLOWBITCOIN IS TOO SLOW

While the Bitcoin base layer is slow, the 2

layer

Lightning Network built on the base layer is …

lightning fast!

Bitcoin’s network can process about 7

transactions per second (TPS).

The Visa network claims it can process up to 24,000

TPS, although 4,000 TPS is closer to actual usage.

The Lightning Network, a second layer solution

built on Bitcoin, has the potential capacity to

process millions of transactions per second!

112

GOGOVERNMENTVERNMENTS CS COOULD BAN BITULD BAN BITCCOINOIN

Some governments have tried, like China, India and

Nigeria for example. In each case, the use of bitcoin

rises rapidly by the people of said country.

There is no way for governments to truly ‘ban’ bit-

coin, as it is by its nature permissionless and censor-

ship-resistant. It is code and code is speech.

That said, governments can make it harder to buy

and sell with, and into fiat. They can also tax it as a

commodity, like they do in the US.

Ultimately, it will not be in their favor to try and ban

it, since bitcoin is inevitable and they are starting

to see that. They would be far smarter to add it to

their country’s balance sheet as a hedge against their

inflating fiat currencies.

Governments are good at cutting o the

heads of centrally controlled networks

like Napster, but pure P2P networks

like Gnutella and Tor seem to be

holding their own.

~ Satoshi Nakamoto

Read:

Can Government Stop Bitcoin? by Alex Gladstein,

CSO of the Human Rights Foundation

Can the Government Ban Bitcoin? Four Things You

Need to Know by Nick Giambruno

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

113

Dispelling FUD

BITCOIN IS OLD TECHBITCOIN IS OLD TECH

More like ‘ultimate tech’, with regards to digital

scarcity, decentralization and solving both the dou-

ble-spending problem and the Byzantine General’s

problem. Once discovered, it cannot be re-discovered.

Once the wheel was invented, it could never be

reinvented.

The TCP/IP protocol that the internet runs on has

been the standard for all computer networking since

1983. It is likely to continue being the standard for a

long time.

Once a prefect-solution, base layer technology is dis-

covered that works optimally, it can last for hundreds,

or thousands of years.

Credit: @DecouvreBitcoin

114

BITCOIN IS USED BY CRIMINALSBITCOIN IS USED BY CRIMINALS

So is the dollar, and every other fiat currency in the

world. It is simply incorrect to attribute this

problem only to bitcoin.

Bitcoin is a tool, just like a knife, and it is up to each

one of us how we use it.

Interestingly, if bitcoin couldn't be used by criminals,

then it would not be the neutral, censorship-resistant

money the world so badly needs.

Note: Since the Bitcoin blockchain is auditable, it is

actually a really bad choice for criminal activity!

QUANTUM COMPUTING COULD QUANTUM COMPUTING COULD

BREAK BITCOINBREAK BITCOIN

While this may be a possibility one day in the future,

developers are already working on solutions for post-

quantum encryption.

Bitcoin is only one of a multitude of online appli-

cations that rely on SHA-256 hashing for security.

Even the military uses it, so there is massive incen-

tive beyond the bitcoin community to develop new

encryption protocols.

If SHA-256 is broken, we will have a lot else to

worry about beyond bitcoin. The entire internet uses

it for encryption. This includes all banking, supply

chains, transportation systems, healthcare systems,

education systems and more.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

115

Dispelling FUD

BITCOIN HAS NO REAL VALUEBITCOIN HAS NO REAL VALUE

“Bitcoin's value is driven by its enforceable scarcity”

~ Fidelity Digital Assets

Rarity is the value. All money over all time has been

valued because it had some measure of scarcity.

In addition, it was backed by the belief that it would

hold its value, such that it could be traded in the

future for something else of value.

As the Bitcoin network grows, backed by the superior

monetary properties it embodies, the network effect

grows exponentially.

The larger the network effect, the more value it, as a

scarce asset, offers. Value is a reflection of demand,

and as demand increases, value increases.

116

SOME PEOPLE HAVE TOO MUCHSOME PEOPLE HAVE TOO MUCH

It is true that some people have far more than others.

In releasing the protocol openly, Satoshi allowed it to

roam freely, and those that understood the potential

it held either mined, or bought in early. It was the

fairest and most organic way possible to present it

to the world.

Over time, when the world is hyperbitcoinized, mean-

ing we are living on a bitcoin standard, those that

have more will naturally spend it into the economy.

Even though at a certain point one will no longer be

able to buy it with fiat, people will get paid for their

work in bitcoin. Being paid in truly sound money will

allow us to have real savings that will not be debased

over time by inflation

While there will always be those with more wealth

and those with less, due to a vast number of factors,

a bitcoin standard will make the membrane between

wealth classes permeable, as Aleks Svetsi says. This

will allow both upward and downward mobility to be

far, far more fluid than it is today.

Having been born into, and swimming our whole lives

in a fiat world, it is almost impossible to imagine, and

fully grok the implications of having a money that

cannot be debased or manipulated!

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

117

Dispelling FUD

BITCOIN IS TOO VOLATILEBITCOIN IS TOO VOLATILE

This is normal during the price discovery phase of

a new monetary asset. There is no other way for

growth to happen when it is organic and emergent

(as opposed to top down and centrally controlled.

In addition, at this stage of human existence, with

exponential shifts happening in all spheres, it makes

sense that something as rEVOLutionary as bitcoin will

have wild swings.

While those of us deep down the rabbit hole see it

as the future, currently only a small percent of the

global population holds bitcoin at this time. This

makes it vulnerable to immense volatility.

As it matures, and adoption increases, the volatil-

ity will decrease, and eventually it will stabilize and

become a unit of account.

I’m sure that in 20 years there will

either be very large transaction

volume or no volume.

~ Satoshi Nakamoto 2010-02-14

118

YYOOU CU CAN’T TAN’T TOOUUCH A BITCH A BITCCOINOIN

This is a feature, not a bug. The very fact that bitcoin

is not physical is one of the biggest factors contrib-

uting to it’s unconfiscatability!

BITCOIN COULD GET HACKEDBITCOIN COULD GET HACKED

In the 15 years since it was launched, it has never

been hacked.

There have been hacks at exchanges however, so I

highly recommend moving your bitcoin to your own

self-custody wallet as soon as possible.

It has been estimated that to break the SHA-256

encryption (that bitcoin uses) within 24 hours, a

quantum computer would need 13,000,000 physical

qubits. At this time, the current qubit record held

by Atom Computing in California is 1,180 qubits.

It is widely assumed that a quantum-safe encryption

method will be developed well before it is needed.

Being open source means anyone can

independently review the code. If it was

closed source, nobody could verify the

security. I think it’s essential for a

program of this nature to be open source.

~Satoshi Nakamoto 2009-12-10

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

119

Dispelling FUD

MORE ON DEBUNKING FUD HERE:MORE ON DEBUNKING FUD HERE:

� Endthefud.org

� Bitcoinmythbusters.org

� Casebitcoin.com - Common Critiques

� Safehodl.github.io/failure/

� Lopp.net - Bitcoin Info: Misconceptions

Bitcoin is fundamentally different from any other digital

asset. No other digital asset is likely to improve upon

bitcoin as a monetary good because bitcoin is the most

(relative to other digital assets) secure, decentralized,

sound digital money and any “improvement”

will necessarily face tradeoffs.

~ Fidelity Digital Assets Report, ‘Bitcoin First’, Jan 2022

Chris Kuiper, CFA, Director of Research

Jack Neureuter, Research Analyst

120

ON THE PRICE OF BITCOINON THE PRICE OF BITCOIN

I see hodling (holding) bitcoin like having a long-term

savings account.

The daily price doesn’t matter, as it is expected to be

volatile (go up and down) for some years yet.

As I mentioned previously, this is normal for a new

asset undergoing price discovery.

If one zooms out on the BTC/USD price chart, you

will see that it has increased by +31,296% since 2009,

averaged out to ~200% per year.

The price swings reflect various news articles, regula-

tory updates, market demand, fear and excitement.

It’s a roller-coaster!

The longer you hodl, the more you learn and under-

stand the fundamentals, and the more you realize

the profound implications of having sound money,

the less the price matters.

In the end, ‘price’ won’t matter at all, as bitcoin

will be the unit of account.

Disclaimer:

 Only put in what you ‘can afford to lose’, since

there are, of course, no guarantees.

 Consider the bitcoin you buy as a long-term

savings account, and plan to leave it in cold

storage for a minimum of five years before

spending.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

121

Dispelling FUD

Original bitcointalkforum.org source for one of the

most classic bitcoin memes of all time.

122

IN THE MEANTIME, ON TAXESIN THE MEANTIME, ON TAXES

 Disclaimer: This is not financial or tax advice

In the US tax code, bitcoin is currently seen as a com-

modity, so there are potential tax implications if you

sell it back into fiat, or even if you buy something with

your bitcoin.

If the price went down before you sold/spent it, you

can claim a loss.

If the price went up, you are supposed to claim a

capital gain, and pay between 10-30% CGT (Capital

Gains Tax).

The amount depends upon several factors, such as

how long you held it before selling or spending, and

in which tax bracket you land.

If you plan to sell or spend bitcoin, especially larger

amounts, you may want to consider consulting with

a tax professional.

If you simply buy and hold, you currently do not have

any taxable events regarding bitcoin.

And if you buy non-KYC…

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

123

WHY WHY ONLY? ONLY?

Of the over 2.5 million* (!) cryptocurrencies ever created,

and 13,000 currently trading, bitcoin is the only one that is:

TRULY decentralized

With a TRULY distributed ledger

A TRULY hard capped supply

A TRULY immutable ledger

A network effect built over 15 years

And a monetary policy that cannot be manipulated!

Every other cryptocurrency has a small, centralized

group who controls the supply, and/or has the

power to change the base layer protocol (monetary

policy).

This is just like the central fiat banking system we

see toda

Centralized power like this begs for

manipulation and

corruption.

See the altcoin pump/dump scam described on the

following page.

Listen to:

Stephan Livera Pod (SLP306) with Guy Swann

A partial list of altcoin/defi rug-pulls since 2020:

rekt.news/leaderboard/

* coingecko.com/research/publications/how-many-

cryptocurrencies-are-there

124

ALTCOIN PUMP AND DUMPSALTCOIN PUMP AND DUMPS

� Sadly, these are real, and happen daily with ‘cryp-

tos/tokens’ other than bitcoin.

� There are various iterations, but one of the most

common types is the following:

Token Created: A new crypto token gets made. Far

easier than it sounds, anyone can do it in minutes.

Website: Often, a shiny, fancy website is created to

make the token look legit.

Paid Influencers: Paid to promote it on social media,

Telegram etc.

Paid Insider Groups: The info is sent to leaders of

some of the hundreds of ‘Trading’ or ‘Investment’

Groups, where people pay monthly or annual fees to

get ‘insider intel’.

Pre-Launch: The paid influencers and paid group lead-

ers buy first, at the bottom price.

Launch: The token is ‘launched’ by these influencers

and group leaders, who tell their followers: ”Quick,

buy now!”

Pump: The price pumps fast as their followers scram-

ble to get in early.

The rapidly rising price entices regular people to buy

in, in the hopes of making their fortune.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

125

Why Only?

This in turn has the effect of pumping the price

even further.

Dump: This sad part usually happens fast. At a certain

point, the paid group leaders sell their tokens, ‘at the

top’. Then they tell their followers to sell.

Price Drop: Because so many people sell at the

same time, and liquidity is generally low since it is

a new coin, the price drops fast.

Panic: The price drop causes panic amidst the general

public, who have no idea of these back-door shenan-

igans, and they start to panic-sell.

Bag Holders: The end of this sad story is that those

left ‘holding the bag’, will likely be holding their bags

forever.

Without any real value or fundamentals, most of these

tokens and meme coins never recover a market

price.

126

SESECCURITURITY & AY & AVVOIDING SOIDING SCCAMSAMS

Stick with bitcoin only.

Be super vigilant about your cyber security!

Do your own research and secure your bitcoin with

utmost care.

NEVER give your seed words to anyone you

wouldn’t give the key to for your stash of gold!

NEVER click on any links in your email that ask you

to confirm account details of any kind. Instead, go

to the official website directly and check if you have

any notices requiring any actions.

BE AWARE that there are endless imitations of

accounts with large followings on social media. If an

influencer randomly DMs you, it is probably a scam.

AVOID all the scams popping up on social media

accounts, promising to double your bitcoin if you

send some to them! You will lose your bitcoin!

AVOID those same ‘double your crypto’ scams on

You Tube.

BE CERTAIN about the address you are sending your

bitcoin to, as transactions are irreversible. Ideally

check the whole address, especially if it is a large

amount.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

127

SATOSHI’S NUMBERS SATOSHI’S NUMBERS

369 CLOCK369 CLOCK

Bitcoin is designed to mine 6 blocks per hour >> one block

on average every ~10 minutes.

24 hours in a day

2+4=6

That works out to 144 blocks per day

1+4+4=9

52560 blocks per year

5+2+5+6+0=18

1+8=9

52704 blocks per leap year

5+2+7+0+4=18

1+8=9

21 Million coins:

2 + 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 3

33 Halvings:

3 + 3 = 6

Difficulty adjusts every 2016 blocks:

2 + 0 + 1 + 6 = 9

~ Based on a tweet by @level39

The block reward halving happens every

210,000

block (approximately every four years)

2 + 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 3

128

“If you only knew the magnicence of the 3, 6 and 9, then

you would have the key to the universe.”

~ Nikola Tesla

BLOCK REWARD = % OF SUPPLYBLOCK REWARD = % OF SUPPLY

The block subsidy (number of bitcoins rewarded

for each newly mined block) represents the

percentage of the total supply that will be mined

during that epoch.

For example, the current block reward between

2024-2028 is 3.125 bitcoin.

In these same four years, 3.125% of the 21

million bitcoins will be mined.

Credit: @bitcoinfool

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

129

Satoshi’s Numbers

REWARD EPOCHSREWARD EPOCHS

Every four years, the bitcoin subsidy gets halved for each

block mined. A Reward Epoch is that four year period.

Reward epoch 1: 2009-2012 Block subsidy: 50 bitcoin

= (50 bitcoins * 210,000 blocks) = 10,500,000 bitcoin

1+0+5+0+0+0+0+0 = 6

Reward epoch 2: 2012-2016 Block subsidy: 25 bitcoin

= (25 * 210,000) = 5,250,000 bitcoin

5+2+5+0+0+0+0 = 12

1+2 = 3

Reward epoch 3: 2016-2020 Block subsidy: 12.5 bitcoin

= (12.5 * 210,000) = 2,625,000 bitcoin

2+6+2+5+0+0+0 = 15

1+5 = 6

Reward epoch 4: 2020-2024 Block subsidy: 6.25 bitcoin

= (6.25 * 210,000) = 1,312,500 bitcoin

1+3+1+2+5+0+0 = 12

1+2 = 3

Reward epoch 5: 2024-2028 Block subsidy: 3.125 bitcoin

= (3.125 * 210,000) = 656,250 bitcoin

6+5+6+2+5+0 = 24

2+4 = 6

Reward epoch 6: 2028-2032 Block subsidy: 1.5625 btc

= (1.5625 * 210,000) = 328,125 bitcoin

3+2+8+1+2+5 = 21

2+1 = 3

Reward epoch 7: 2032-2036 Block subsidy: 0.78125 btc

= (0.78125*210,000) = 164,062.5 bitcoin

1+6+4+0+6+2+5 = 24

2+4 = 6

... and so on until 2140

130

SATOSHI’S BIRTHDAYSATOSHI’S BIRTHDAY

April 5, 1975 is the date Satoshi claimed as his

birthday.

While we cannot know if this was indeed his true birth

date, it is very interesting.

April 5th (1933) was the day that Executive Order 6102

was signed by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt

“forbidding the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion,

and gold certificates within the continental United

States.”

1975 was the year the repeal of EO 6102 went into

effect, and US citizens were once again allowed to

hold more than 5oz of gold.

A NUMERIC PALINDROME 6102-2016A NUMERIC PALINDROME 6102-2016

6102 was the number of the above-mentioned

Executive Order.

2016 is the number of blocks mined during each dif-

ficulty adjustment (approximately 2 weeks).

� In both of the above examples, one could

postulate that Satoshi was using numbers

to indicate a reversal, an unwinding of the

damage inflicted by government overreach.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

131

Satoshi’s Numbers

BITCOIN PIZZA DAYBITCOIN PIZZA DAY

May 22 is known as Bitcoin Pizza Day. This was the

day that a guy, named Laszlo Hanyecz, announced

on bitcointalkforum.org that he had successfully

traded 10,000 bitcoin for pizza! Back then that

was about $40.

In today’s prices, that would be ~$610,000,000.

It was a milestone for bitcoin, in that it was the first

known incident of someone trading bitcoin for a

good or service. What a long way we have come!

132

BITCOIN CALENDAR OF NOTABLE DAYSBITCOIN CALENDAR OF NOTABLE DAYS

2008-08-18 ~ The domain name bitcoin.org was registered.

2008-10-31 ~ Bitcoin White Paper Day: The

White Paper,

titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” was

published by an anonymous cryptographer named Satoshi

Nakamoto on metzdowd.com, the cryptography mailing list.

2009-01-03 ~ Bitcoin’s Birthday: The Bitcoin network was

launched, when Satoshi mined the Genesis block.

2009-01-12 ~ The first bitcoin transaction took place, when Hal

Finney received ten bitcoins from Satoshi as a test send.

2009-10-05 ~ Birth of the first bitcoin exchange, The New

Liberty Standard (NLS), with a listed market price of $0.00764

per coin.

2009-10-12 ~ "Found the first known bitcoin to USD

transaction from my email backups. I sold 5,050 BTC for $5.02

on 2009-10-12." - Martti Malmi, bitcointalk.org founder, sold

bitcoin to NewLibertyStandard who started the first exchange.

2010-05-22 ~ Bitcoin Pizza Day: The first known occurrence of

bitcoin being used to buy a good or service, when Lazslo

Hanyecz paid 10,000 bitcoin for two Papa John’s pizzas!

2010-12-12 ~ The last time that Satoshi posted on the

bitcointalk.org forum.

2011-02-11 ~ Bitcoin reaches parity with the US Dollar for the

first time.

2011-06-14 ~ Wikileaks begins accepting donations in bitcoin.

2017-03-03 ~ Bitcoin reaches parity with an ounce of gold.

2021-08-21 ~ First Annual Bitcoin Infinity Day suggested by

Knut Svanholm’s meme:

Everything divided by 21 million.

21-09-07 ~

l S

ecomes the first country to make

bitcoin legal tender.

plest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

133

that was just the start…

here are more

RESOURCES FOR THE RESOURCES FOR THE

RABBIT HOLERABBIT HOLE

“Curiouser and curiouser!” said Alice

MOVIESMOVIES

You can find these movies on YouTube or Rumble.

BITCOIN MOVIES:BITCOIN MOVIES:

� @MaxDeMarco and @GetBasedTV on YouTube

� Bitcointv.com

� Dirty Coin: A Bitcoin Mining Documentary (2024)

� Immutable Democracy: film.simpleproof.com (2023)

� The Great Reset and the Rise of Bitcoin (2022)

� A Sly Roundabout Way: aslyroundaboutway.com (2022)

� Where Did Bitcoin Come From

(2021)

� This Machine Greens (2021) About Bitcoin & Energy

� Bit X Bit: In Bitcoin We Trust (2018)

� Bitcoin Big Bang (2018) About the 2014 Mt Gox hack

� Magic Money: The Bitcoin Revolution (2017)

� Banking on Bitcoin (2016)

� Deep Web (2015) About Silk Road & Ross Ulbricht

� Bitcoin: The End of Money as We Know It (2015)

� The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin (2014)

� Bitcoin in Uganda (2014)

FIAT MONEY SYSTEM MOVIES:FIAT MONEY SYSTEM MOVIES:

� How is Money Created (2020)

� Hidden Secrets of Money - Mike Maloney (2013-18)

� Who Controls All of our Money? (2017)

� How the Economic Machine Works - Ray Dalio (2013)

� Inside Job (2010) - Events leading up to 2008 crash

� The Money Masters (1996)

134

BOBOOKOKSS

On Bitcoin:

� Layered Money by

Nik Batia

� 21 Lessons

DerGigi

� The Bullish Case for Bitcoin

Vijay Boyapati

� The Bitcoin Standard

by Saifedean Ammous

� Inventing Bitcoin

an Pritzker

� Check

our Financial Privilege

Alex Gladstein

� Why Buy Bitcoin by Andy Edstrom

� Bitcoin Audible: Guy Swann reads Bitcoin books

� The Bitcoin Dictionary by Ansel Lindner

� The Genesis Book by Aaron van Wirdum

� Gradually, then Suddenly

by Parker Lewis

� Cryptosovereignty

by Eric Cason

� The Price of Tomorrow by Jeff Booth

� Broken Money by Lyn Alden

� The Fiat Standard by Saifedean Ammous

� The Hidden Cost of Money by Seb Bunney

� Shells to Satoshi by D Heikkinen and J Marquez

� The Sovereign Individual by Davidson & Rees-Mogg

POPODDCASCASTTSS

Listen on Fountain app to stream sats to hosts!

If not yet on Fountain, find these on Spotify and iTunes.

� Citadel Dispatch with Matt Odell

� Bitcoin Rapid Fire with John Vallis

� Stephan Livera Podcast with Stephan Livera

� Coin Stories

with Natalie Brunell

� Access Tribe's Bitcoin Podcast with Krista Edmunds

� The Bitcoin Standard Podcast with Dr S. Ammous

� Once Bitten with Daniel Prince

� Rabbit Hole Recap with Matt Odell and Marty Bent

� Bitcoin for Peace with DJ Valerie B Love

On Fiat, Monetary History and more:

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Resources for the Rabbit Hole

� The Bitcoin Matrix with Cedric Youngelman

� Bitcoin Fixes This with Jimmy Song

� Orange Pill Podcast with Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert

� What Bitcoin Did with Peter McCormack

� Bitcoin Audible Guy Swann reads books/articles

FREE COURSESFREE COURSES

� My First Bitcoin - Bitcoin Curriculum

� Saylor Academy - Bitcoin for Everybody

� Looking Glass Education - Money & Bitcoin Courses

� Nakamotoinstitute.org

� Bitcoin-only.com

� Bitcoin Wiki - En.bitcoin.it

� WhyBitcoinOnly.com

� Wtfhappenedinfeb2023.com

� Lopp.net

� Casebitcoin.com

� Bitcoiner.guide

� Bitcoin.tv

� Learnmeabitcoin.com - Great simple btc tech explainer!

� Hope.com

� Bitcoin-resources.com

� Myfirstbitcoin.io (Available in Spanish too)

� Whatisbitcoin.com

� SatoshisJournal.com

� github.com/bitcoin

 PlayShamory.com - Toys, games & books incl.

 Satoshi Nakamoto & His Bitcoin Invention

 Bitcoin Money By Michael Caras

 Bitcoin Trading Cards - btc-tc.com

 Bitcoin Kids Comic Book by Nzonda Fotsing Sr

 Hodl Up - Bitcoin Mining Board Game

 21 Bitcoin Lessons - freemarketkids.com

 What is Bitcoin? - @TuttleTwins on YouTube

134

136

BT ~ BITCOIN TWITTERBT ~ BITCOIN TWITTER

Some cypherpunks

, geniuses, goats & wild ones to follow!

Through these accounts, you will

find 1000's of plebs

and other deep thinkers,

all on the journe

, along with bitcointalk.org and Reddit, has largely been

where this experiment has grown,

and now joined by Nostr,

the decentralized communication protocol,

all unfurling in real time, across time and space,

in the ethers of cyberspace, connected to the physical,

through all of us,

humans,

sharing a vision of a decentralized world.

Then there are the quieter ones, developers working

behind the scenes

without whom

none of this would be possible.

All of us

together,

unleashed,

as bitcoin was unleashed upon us,

a blessing beyond measure.

TOPICS INCLUDE

: Bitco

in, Proof-of-W

ork, Privac

, Philosoph

Monetary

History, Code, Bitcoin Mining, Sociology, Game

Theory, Austrian Economics, Bitcoin Education, Lightning

Network, Regulatory Environment, Bitcoin’s Energy Use,

Core Devs, Bitcoin Communities, Bitcoin’s Future and more.

Be warned: It helps to have a somewhat thick skin on twitter,

and know this, there is a lot of passion in defense of

bitcoin. Keeping a clear line between it and all the

altcoins takes work. Maintaining the clarity, security and

purity of the only truly sound money the world has ever

known is critical, if we are to have a chance in these times

a’coming.

e Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

137

Resources for the Rabbit Hole

Adam Back - @adam3us

Allen Farrington - @allenf32

Anil - @anilsaidso

Anita Posch - @AnitaPosch

Arman the Parman - @parman_the

Beautyon - @Beautyon_

Bitcoin Q+A - @BitcoinQ_A

BTC Sessions - @BTCsessions

BTC Times - @btc

Brandon Quittem - @Bquittem

D++ - @D_plus__plus

Daniel Batten - @DSBatten

Daniel S Pico - @BTCGandalf

Deterministic Optimism - @nvk

Efrat Fenigson - @efenigson

Erik Cason - @Erikcason

Giacomo - @giacomozucco

Gigi - @dergigi on Nostr

Guy Swann - @TheGuySwann

Jack - @jack on Nostr

Jameson Lopp - @lopp

Jeff Booth - @JeffBooth

Jimmy Song - @jimmysong

Knut Svanholm - @knutsvanholm

Luke Dash Jr - @LukeDashjr

Lyn Alden - @LynAldenContact

Marty Bent - @MartyBent

Matt Odell - @ODELL on Nostr

Mechanic - @GrassFedBitcoin

Michael Saylor - @saylor

Natalie Brunell - @natbrunell

Natalie Smolenski - @NSmolenski

Nick Szabo - @NickSzabo4

Nik Bhatia - @timevalueofbtc

Parker Lewis - @parkeralewis

Pavlenex - @pavlenex

Pleb Lab - @PlebLab

Preston Pysh - @PrestonPysh

Seb Bunney - @sebbunney

Tomer Strolight - @TomerStrolight

Troy Cross - @thetrocro

Vijay Boyapati - @real_vijay

Thank you all for teaching me every day!

138

COMMUNITY COMMUNITY

PROJECTSPROJECTS

Below are some of the grassroots projects around

the world that are working to educate and create a

local economy with bitcoin.

Follow them on Nostr or Twitter to learn more or to

donate:

Bitcoin Beach El Zonte - El Salvador - @Bitcoinbeach

Bitcoin Ekasi - South Africa - @BitcoinEkasi

Bitcoin Beach Brazil - Brazil - @BitcoinBeachBR

Bitcoin Jungle - Costa Rica - @BitcoinJungleCR

Bitcoin Venezuela - Venezuela - @btcven

Bitcoin Bay - Florida, USA - @bitcoinbaytpa

Bitcoin Lake - Lake Atitlan - @LakeBitcoin

Bitcoin House Bali - Indonesia - @btchousebali

7 Mile Bitcoin - Cayman Islands - 7milebitcoin.org

Bitcoin Kampala - Uganda - @BitcoinKampala

Bitcoin Retreat - Phillipines - @BtcRetreat

Bridge2Bitcoin - UK - @Bridge2Bitcoin

Bitcoin Berlin - El Salvador - @BitcoinBerlinSV

Harlem Bitcoin - New York, USA - @HarlemBitcoin

F.R.E.E Madeira - Portugal - @FREEMadeiraOrg

Bitcoin Valley - Rovereto, Italy

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

139

INDUCED INDUCED

PONDERINGSPONDERINGS

Shout out to

Satoshi

and all the

orange-pilled

dreamers

seers

cypher punk wizards

poets for freedom

keepers of wisdom

sovereign individuals

hodlers of last resort

fearlessly forging forward

alone together

for freedom

Vires In Numeris!

140

A RABBIT HOLE PONDERINGA RABBIT HOLE PONDERING

Bitcoin is really a rather fascinating ‘thing’

Except it is not a ‘thing’

In the sense that you cannot touch it

Yet it is touching millions of us

Around the world

Soon to be billions..

It is true that

It is digital bits and bytes

Algorithms and code

0’s and 1’

And that if every single node

Archival node, pruned node and light node

Were somehow

Destroyed

It would no longer exist

In the way we know it

Are able to perceive it..

It would, however, still ‘exist’

In the sense that quantum physics

Or gravity

Exists

Regardless of human perception..

In the sense that mathematics existed

Before humans codified it

Chose symbols to represent it..

Truth

Does not need us

The S

implest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

141

Induced Ponderings

WHY WILL ALL VALUE ACCRUE WHY WILL ALL VALUE ACCRUE

TO BITCOINTO BITCOIN

There are some interesting game theories that appear

to converge when it comes to bitcoin, making the

likelihood of it’s growth and increased value over time

more and more certain.

SCHELLING POINTSCHELLING POINT

Introduced in the 1960s by the American economist,

Thomas Schelling, the Schelling point basically asserts

that people who cannot necessarily communicate

with one another, can still converge on a decision

or course of action, especially when a compelling

solution to a problem presents itself (-> bitcoin)

In addition, as more people are drawn to the Schelling

point, it attracts ever more people (-> bitcoin)

LINDY EFFECTLINDY EFFECT

In essence, the Lindy Effect states that the longer an

idea, a technology or a business has been around,

the longer it is likely to endure.

METCALFE’S LAWMETCALFE’S LAW

Popularized by Robert Metcalfe, who invented

Ethernet, among other things. Metcalfe’s law states

that a network becomes proportionally more valu-

able the more users it has. Utility increases exponen-

tially as more and more users join, strengthening

the network.

142

THE P2P NETWORKTHE P2P NETWORK

It is a global distributed database, with

additions to the database by consent of

the majority...

~ Satoshi Nakamoto 2009-02-18

Global reachable Bitcoin Nodes distribution, June 2024

The result is a distributed system with

no single point of failure. Users hold

the crypto keys to their own money and

transact directly with each other, with

the help of the P2P network to check for

double-spending.

~ Satoshi Nakamoto 2009-02-11

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

143

Induced Ponderings

BITCOIN, BITCOIN,

NONVIOLENT COMMUNICATION NONVIOLENT COMMUNICATION

& PERMACULTURE& PERMACULTURE

I see Bitcoin, brought to us by Satoshi Nakamoto, as being

the foundation layer for a healthy society with regards to:

communicating value

transacting and exchanging

storing our time/life energy

in an emergent, organic, honest unfolding.

I see Nonviolent Communication, brought to us by Marshall

Rosenberg PhD, as the foundation layer for a healthy society

with regards to:

communicating feelings and needs

deep listening, empathy

finding co-creative solutions

in an emergent, organic, honest unfolding.

I see Natural Farming and Permaculture, brought to us by

our Ancestors, and more recently, Masunobu Fukuoka and Bill

Mollison as being the foundation layer for a healthy society

with regards to:

communication with the earth

growing food, healing the soil

tending the wild

in an emergent, organic and honest unfolding.

144

Each of these technologies, one mathematical, taking

us beyond mathematics, one linguistic, taking us beyond

language, one biological, taking us beyond biology, are

based in Truth.

It is up to us to make use of them, to live into them, and

to allow them to guide us deeper and deeper into the

profound potential we feel tingling at the tip of

our perception.

May we find the courage, the strength,

the wisdom and the grace

to move forth fearlessly

on the journey.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

145

A Cypherpunk’s ManifestoA Cypherpunk’s Manifesto

by Eric Hughes

Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age.

Privacy is not secrecy. A private matter is something one

doesn’t want the whole world to know, but a secret matter

is something one doesn’t want anybody to know. Privacy is

the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world.

If two parties have some sort of dealings, then each has

a memory of their interaction. Each party can speak about

their own memory of this; how could anyone prevent it? One

could pass laws against it, but the freedom of speech, even

more than privacy, is fundamental to an open society; we

seek not to restrict any speech at all. If many parties speak

together in the same forum, each can speak to all the others

and aggregate together knowledge about individuals and

other parties. The power of electronic communications has

enabled such group speech, and it will not go away merely

because we might want it to.

Since we desire privacy, we must ensure that each party to

a transaction have knowledge only of that which is directly

necessary for that transaction. Since any information can be

spoken of, we must ensure that we reveal as little as possible.

In most cases personal identity is not salient. When I purchase

a magazine at a store and hand cash to the clerk, there is no

need to know who I am.

When I ask my electronic mail provider to send and receive

messages, my provider need not know to whom I am speak-

ing or what I am saying or what others are saying to me; my

provider only need know how to get the message there and

how much I owe them in fees. When my identity is revealed

by the underlying mechanism of the transaction, I have no

privacy. I cannot here selectively reveal myself; I must always

reveal myself.

146

Therefore, privacy in an open society requires anonymous

transaction systems. Until now, cash has been the primary

such system. An anonymous transaction system is not a

secret transaction system. An anonymous system empow-

ers individuals to reveal their identity when desired and only

when desired; this is the essence of privacy.

Privacy in an open society also requires cryptography. If I say

something, I want it heard only by those for whom I intend it.

If the content of my speech is available to the world, I have

no privacy. To encrypt is to indicate the desire for privacy,

and to encrypt with weak cryptography is to indicate not too

much desire for privacy. Furthermore, to reveal one’s identity

with assurance when the default is anonymity requires the

cryptographic signature. We cannot expect governments,

corporations, or other large, faceless organizations to grant

us privacy out of their beneficence

It is to their advantage to speak of us, and we should expect

that they will speak. To try to prevent their speech is to fight

against the realities of information. Information does not just

want to be free, it longs to be free. Information expands to fill

the available storage space. Information is Rumor’s younger,

stronger cousin; Information is fleeter of foot, has more eyes,

knows more, and understands less than Rumor.

We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any.

We must come together and create systems which allow

anonymous transactions to take place. People have been

defending their own privacy for centuries with whispers,

darkness, envelopes, closed doors, secret handshakes, and

couriers. The technologies of the past did not allow for strong

privacy, but electronic technologies do.

We the Cypherpunks are dedicated to building anonymous

systems. We are defending our privacy with cryptography,

with anonymous mail forwarding systems, with digital signa-

tures, and with electronic money.

Cypherpunk’s Manifesto

147

A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto

Cypherpunks write code. We know that

someone has to

write software to defend privacy, and since we can’t get

privacy unless we all do, we’re going to write it. We

publish

our code so that our fellow Cypherpunks may practice and

play with it.

Our code is free for all to use, worldwide. We don’t much

care if you don’t approve of the software we write. We

know that software can’t be destroyed and that a widely

dispersed system can’t be shut down.

Cypherpunks deplore regulations on cryptography, for

encryption is fundamentally a private act. The act of

encryp-tion, in fact, removes information from the public

realm. Even laws against cryptography reach only so far as a

nation’s bor-der and the arm of its violence.

Cryptography will ineluctably spread over the whole globe,

and with it the anonymous transactions systems that it

makes possible.

For privacy to be widespread it must be part of a social

con-tract. People must come and together deploy these

systems for the common good. Privacy only extends so

far as the cooperation of one’s fellows in society. We the

Cypherpunks seek your questions and your concerns and

hope we may engage you so that we do not deceive

ourselves. We will not, however, be moved out of our

course because some may disagree with our goals.

The Cypherpunks are actively engaged in making the net-

works safer for privacy. Let us proceed together apace.

Onward.

Eric Hughes <hughes@soda.berkeley.edu>

9 March 1993

(Emphasis in bold is mine)

148

SOME OF THE EARLY CYPHERPUNKSSOME OF THE EARLY CYPHERPUNKS

we can thank for contributing to the

development of digital peer-to-peer cash

� Satoshi Nakamoto - Anonymous cypherpunk who

introduced bitcoin to the world in 2009.

� Nick Szabo - Bit Gold 2005

� Hal Finney - 2004 Reusable Proof of Work (RPoW),

Author of PGP 2.0. Second person to run the bit-

coin client. Received the first bitcoin transaction

of 10 bitcoins from Satoshi Nakamoto

� Wei Dai - B-money 1998

� Dr Adam Back - HashCash 1997 - CEO

Blockstream

� Douglas Jackson and Barry Downey - E Gold

1996

� John Gilmore

� Timothy C.May

� Eric Hughes

� Philip Zimmermann: 1991 PGP 1.0, the most

widely used email encryption in use.

� David Chaum - Ecash 1983 and DigiCash 1989

}

Founders of the Cypherpunk

movement and mailing list in 1992.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

149

The The

WhitWhite Pe Papaperer

Presented to the world on metzdowd.com

2008-10-31

by Satoshi Nakamoto

A pseudonymous cypherpunk, who last communicated

with the cypherpunk community on the bitcointalk.org

forum on 2010-12-10.

By leaving, he allowed Bitcoin to be a true experiment in

the wild. Everyone who works on it is a volunteer in some

sense <-> inspired by the potential of freeing humanity

from the shackles of a manipulated, debt-based money

system, and instead, participating in a global, trustless,

permissionless, censorship-resistant, truly scarce, peer-to-

peer, decentralized money and monetary payment net-

work, that is inspiring an emergent order to rise out of the

fiat ashes

We are all Satoshi

The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink

of second bailout for banks

~ Text of a headline from The Times of London,

etched into the Bitcoin Genesis block by Satoshi

Nakamoto on 2009-01-03

150

151

The White Paper

152

153

The White Paper

154

155

The White Paper

156

157

The White Paper

158

159

The White Paper

Bitcoin Genesis Block ~ Raw Hex Version Bitcoin Genesis Block ~ Raw Hex Version

2009-01-032009-01-03

and so,

a new era,

was unleashed

One could pass laws against it, but the freedom of

speech, even more than privacy

, is fundamental to an

open society; we seek not to restrict any speech at all.

TL;DR: nostr is a protocol that has the power to

replace twitter, Telegram, and other things.

~ Eric Hughes, The Cypherpunk's manifesto, 1993

~ @dergigi

nostr is to freedom of communication

as bitcoin is to freedom of transaction.

Nostr is a simple, decentralized protocol for

censorship-resistant, global, interoperable networks.

Nostr does not rely on a trusted central server.

It is a free and open source (FOSS) software protocol,

like Bitcoin, HTTP or TCP-IP, which allows anyone to

build on nostr.

It is how we retain our freedom to communicate

with anyone, anywhere with an internet connection.

~ Keysa @SimplestBitcoinBook

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

160

(it is) a communications protocol with a

self-sovereign identity layer...

and nostr is also more than that.

~ @dergigi

We need nostr because the current communication

systems and social media platforms are centralized.

This is problematic because these systems:

Have the power to censor your speech.

Are vulnerable to regulatory attacks by the state.

Can choose, or be told, to suspend or delete your

account.

Can be hacked, and thus compromise your data.

Use algorithms to feed you the information they want

you to see.

Manipulate every aspect of your experience on them.

Track all your activity.

Harvest and sell your data.

Use your data to litter your feed with advertisements.

Freedom tech is hope.

~ @ODELL

161

WHY WE NEED NOSTR

Nostr has two parts: Clients and Relays.

A CLIENT is an INTERFACE (app or website) that is run

on the nostr protocol.

It is where you see the notes that you and the people

you follow post (in the same way that twitter is an

interface where you post and read notes by others,

except twitter is centralized & it censors posts.)

A RELAY is a SERVER and a DATABASE. Anyone can

run a relay, which is what makes nostr decentralized.

It is where your notes are sent, stored and retrieved

from by clients.

There are many relays and you can choose which ones

to connect to. Some are free and some are paid.

When you post a message, it is broadcast to the relays

you are connected to.

The clients query the relays they are connected to, and

then they populate the messages being hosted by

those relays.

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

162

@BTCillustrated

When you open your nostr client, you will see all the

notes posted by you and those you follow in

chronological order.

There are no algorithms deciding what to show you,

what to withhold from you, or censoring your posts.

Like Bitcoin, nostr uses public/private key pairs.

 PUBLIC KEY = npub, like a username

 PRIVATE KEY = nsec, like a password

163

HOW DOES NOSTR WORK?

NOTE: Your private key cannot be reset if

lost, so you must secure it well!

If you leak your private key, whoever has

access to it has access to your nostr

account, and there is no way to regain

sole access.

Anyone can run a relay. A relay is very simple and

dumb. It does nothing besides accepting posts

from some people and forwarding to others.

Relays don’t have to be trusted.

Signatures are verified on the client side.

~ @fiatjaf, 2019-11-02 fiatjaf.com/nostr.html

164

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

Once you have your nostr key pair, you can log into any

nostr client with those same keys, and you will see that

you retain your identity and followers/following lists

on all the clients.

This differs from legacy social media, where you need a

separate account, username and password for each

platform, and you have different content, follows and

followers on each one.

You can create a human-readable username using

IP-05. For example:

My Public Key, or npub is:

npub1dpna3xwwddnhhzg9ycpvlcz2ze0jdwm2rf3eqd2lf9leaewtq7tqhw0ef2

My NIP-05 Nostr address is:

SimplestBitcoinBook@nostrplebs.com

You can search for people on nostr by entering their:

 npub

 NIP-05 (aka nostr address) if they have one

 Username from NIP-05 -> @SimplestBitcoinBook

Get

a NIP-05 Identifier here:

 nostrplebs.com

 verified-nostr.com

 getalby.com

 Or set one up with your own domain

At it's most basic level, Nostr is a communication

protocol that acts as the social glue that binds

all of your apps together.

~ derekross@nostrplebs.com

165

Choose a client app to download. (It doesn't matter

which one you select, as you can try them all out once

you have your key pair generated.)

Popular Client Examples:

 Damus on iOS

 Amethyst on Android

 Primal on iOS/Android/Desktop

Create a User Name. No other info is needed.

The app will generate the account.

You can add a profile picture and banner if you like.

6 .

Your account will automatically connect to a few

relays once you select at least one interest (eg:

bitcoin, art, human rights, sports, music etc)

Depending on the client, it will automatically follow a

few accounts with a similar interest, or let you select a

few.

You can then add or remove relays and accounts.

@BTCillustrated

166

Once your keys have been generated, it is time to

inst

all a signing extension.

When you want to log in to a website running on the

nostr protocol, it will ask for your nsec, or private key.

DO NOT enter it directly, as websites can leak data.

Instead, always use a signing extension.

This is a tool which stores your private key, and you

authorize it to sign events, such as notes, on your

behalf. Don't worry, this is simpler than it sounds!

Popular signing extensions:

 Nostore (iOS Safari)

 Amber (Android)

 Nsec App (Mobile/Desktop)

 Alby (

Desktop)

 Nos2X (Desktop)

 Nostr Connect (Desktop

)

Zapping is how we bitcoin on nostr! Creating a V4V

(Value4Value) economy, note by note, zap by zap.

You can send and receive sats (aka zaps) for notes or

content you appreciate by connecting a Bitcoin

Lightning wallet to your nostr account.

There are various ways to do this. If the client you

choose doesn't walk you through it, just ask on nostr

with the #asknostr tag, and someone will guide you.

Nostriches are friendly!

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

 nostr-resources.com by @derGigi

 nostr.com by @fiatjaf

 nostr.net by @aljaz

 nostr.how by @JeffG

 usenostr.org by @pluja

 benwehrman.com/nostr-guide by @benwehrman

 nostrapps.com by @Karnage

167

Below is a list of websites that have excellent, easily

digestible guides on nostr and it's wonders!

The

Nostrich Origin Story

by Walker@primal.net

December 16, 2022:

I discovered ChatGPT3 and,

naturally, asked it

“Can you write a joke about #nostr?”

ChatGPT3 responded:

Q: What do you call a nosy ostrich?

A: A nosTrich!

The joke wasn’t great, but you can’t blame a bot. Regardless, I

loved the idea of a visual identity for nostr, and ostriches are

cool birds. So I took to Midjourney and created The #Nostrich

December 20, 2022:

@jb55 proposed the “Nostrich” as the official Nostr mascot

and logo.

Three minutes later, @jack tweets the Nostrich image.

The rest, as they say, is history.

~ @Walker



Nostr Nests - An audio space for chatting, jamming,

micro-conferences, live podcasts.



Plebian Market - The self-sovereign marketplace of the

Internet, powered by Bitcoin & Lightning.



Npub.pro - Make yourself a nostr-based website.



Corny Chat - Live audio spaces.



Wavlake - A music streaming platform that utilizes

Bitcoin's Lightning Network to offer value for value.



Zap.stream - Host your live stream and get sat zaps.



Flare - A client for viewing, uploading, and interacting

with video content.



Blowater - Built to replace Telegram/Slack/Discord.



Stemstr - A social experience for music artists to

connect, collaborate and share amazing music.



Nostr.build - Image, video & media uploader & host.



Hivetalk - Real-time, totally private video calls and

meetings, replaces Zoom.



Zap.cooking - Share recipes over Nostr.



Flockstr - Events and meetup scheduling.



Memestr - View and make memes over Nostr



Quotestr - Make a Nostr note an image quote.

168

Visit nostrapps.com to find these, and so many more

amazing apps built on the free, open-source nostr protocol.

Use your signing extension to sign into them all!

The Simplest Bitcoin Book Ever Written

169

~ @fiatjaf from:

Nostr is still very young. Just like bitcoin, but much

younger, it is a grassroots, messy, global, ground-up

experiment.

If you see the value in a decentralized, censorship-

resistant, open-source communications protocol,

please join us in using it, developing it, offering

feedback to the devs, and participating in whatever

way you feel called, to help grow this free speech tool.

It is an amazing experience to engage in a growing

technology that is built to preserve freedom of speech

and open communication globally.

Dive in and learn along with the rest of us sovereign

souls, embracing the inherent chaos to create beauty,

and to forge a bright future for our grandchildren!

More important than all is that we must keep in mind that

nostr is just a very loose set of servers with basically no

connection between them, ... and the process of keeping

connected to others and finding content must be

addressed through many different hackish attempts. To

write Nostr applications and to use Nostr one

must embrace the inherent chaos.

'A vision for content discovery and relay usage

for basic social-networking in Nostr'

Profound gratitude to Satoshi, Fiatjaf, the cypherpunks

past, present and future, Nostr fam, the BT vortex, the

toxic maxis, the non-toxic maxis, the meme-lords and -

ladies, the believers, the cynics, the seers...

and always,

my beloved family, friends,

and the One who breathes through us all,

for always seeing me through,

more precious than anything, even bitcoin

Free PDF of this book and the translations

available at: thesimplestbitcoinbook.net

Comments, quest

ions, updates, feedback:

thesimplestbitcoinbook@proton.me

Can’t promise I will get to it in a timely fashion ...

might be barefoot on a mountain somewhere

Stack sats

Stay strong

Stay true

in the end, Love

851522

Follow me on nostr: